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Ann McFeatters: Laying the facts out for undecided voters

Follow along if you can. If you get loss, that&rsquo;s OK because you won&rsquo;t be alone.
				The Wyoming Valley Conference football season started with an original 10-game schedule. Then as leagues and conferences decided to play in-house only, the WVC came out with another 10-game schedule. That was then altered and released with a seven-game schedule.
				An eight-game schedule was settled upon, only for it to be massaged about a half dozen times. And then that final eight-game schedule has been changed every week as COVID-19 situations cropped up across the WVC.
				Just this week, Friday&rsquo;s schedule had two games chopped off &mdash; Pittston Area at Wilkes-Barre Area and Wyoming Valley West at Hazleton Area. Pittston Area closed shop completely, although the school&rsquo;s other sports will continue playing. Two Valley West students contracted COVID-19, and the school district suspended extra curricular activities until at least Monday.
				All but two football programs have had games scrapped because of COVID-19 &mdash; Lake-Lehman and Nanticoke Area. Some teams were affected directly, although most of those were because of positive tests on the fringes and not player/coach related. Others were indirectly affected, having to change their schedules on the fly because an opponent had a COVID-19 issue.
				Just look what else happened in recent days:
				&#8226; Northwest, which jumped from the WVC to the Northern Tier League, cancelled its game with Canton and is on a two-week hiatus. Although the team could return and play the first two weeks of November, that&rsquo;s very unlikely to happen.
				&#8226; Williamsport lost its game with Pittston Area last Friday and arranged a game with Harrisburg on Tuesday. Harrisburg didn&rsquo;t start practice until Sept. 20 and is so desperate to get in enough games to qualify for the District 3 playoffs it also played last Saturday and is hunting for a game this weekend. That would mean three games in a 7-8 day window.
				Additionally, Williamsport coach Chuck Crews wasn&rsquo;t on the sidelines vs. Harrisburg and won&rsquo;t be there Saturday afternoon vs. Dallas. He started a 14-day quarantine Monday after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
				&#8226; Pittston Area returned to the practice field Monday after a stoppage because of a COVID-19 situation. The Patriots, though, found out they had no opponent since Wilkes-Barre Area remained shut down because of COVID-19.
				The vacancy didn&rsquo;t last long as Pittston Area secured a game with District 11&rsquo;s Tamaqua, which lost its game with North Schuylkill. North Schuylkill stopped its program after contact tracing determined 21 students and 47 people in the football program were in contact with someone with a positive COVID-19 test.
				A day later, Pittston Area shuttered its program for the season because of COVID-19, ending its annual rivalry game with Wyoming Area that has been played every year since 1967. Tamaqua then jumped on the opportunity to play Pen Argyl, another District 11 team which had its original opponent close shop temporarily.
				&#8226; As for Wilkes-Barre Area, the Wolfpack was preparing to play at Berwick last Saturday night, but were told that morning the game was off because of COVID-19 in their school district. Berwick went into scramble mode and tried to get an opponent for Monday or Tuesday. The effort failed for the Dawgs, who have played one game since Sept. 25. Berwick had an earlier COVID-19 stoppage which cost them a game with Wyoming Valley West.
				&#8226; Berwick returns to the field Friday night, hosting Crestwood. Crestwood knew well in advance it didn&rsquo;t have a game last weekend since Hanover Area suspended sports because of COVID-19, missing two games in the process. The Comets, though, didn&rsquo;t get a replacement opponent.
				&#8226; Hanover Area hasn&rsquo;t been on the field much. The Hawkeyes last played Oct. 2 and have played just three games. The number would have been two if not for District 5&rsquo;s Windber making a trek of over three hours to play Hanover Area.
				Hanover Area&rsquo;s opponent on Saturday isn&rsquo;t ideal for a rebuilding Class 3A program &mdash; Class 6A Scranton. But when Scranton was available to fill this weekend&rsquo;s gap, Hanover Area coach Rick Hummer was all for it. He just wants his guys to play games.
				&#8226; Hanover Area had a less formidable opponent scheduled in Holy Redeemer. But when the school board decided not to play fall sports &mdash; only to rescind its vote four days later &mdash; Redeemer quickly filled the gap with Holy Cross, its Catholic school rival from Scranton.
				The Royals didn&rsquo;t want to give up Holy Cross upon Hanover Area&rsquo;s return and the Catholic teams will play Friday night. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but the cancellation of Pittston Area at Wilkes-Barre Area freed up Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium a day sooner.
				&#8226; If Valley West returns to the field next week, it will play somebody on Oct. 30. The opponent will be Wilkes-Barre Area, if the Wolfpack are cleared to play, or Wyoming Area, which had its final regular-season game against Pittston Area cancelled.
				&#8226; Hazleton Area&rsquo;s game with Williamsport next Friday is already off, but not for COVID-19 reasons.
				Williamsport will play the District 6 Class 6A champion in a subregional tournament title game on Oct. 30. After years of playing in the D2-6A playoffs, Williamsport was grouped with District 6 this season and next.
				Hazleton Area will play in the D2-6A championship game next weekend. Its opponent will likely be Delaware Valley, which has no game scheduled next weekend.

H.S Football: Crazy Wyoming Valley Conference season got a little crazier this week