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A majority of Wyoming Valley Conference schools decided Monday to push winter sports competitions back to Jan. 4 at the earliest due to COVID-19 concerns.
				In an email from Wilkes-Barre Area superintendent Brian Costello, the following schools have made the decision &mdash; Berwick, Crestwood, Dallas, Hanover Area, Hazleton Area, Nanticoke Area, Pittston Area, Wilkes-Barre Area, Wyoming Area and Wyoming Valley West.
				District 2 chairman Frank Majikes was on the virtual meeting with WVC superintendents. He said all those schools are also suspending practices along with Wyoming Seminary. The Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association moved its starting date to Jan. 4 last week.
				&ldquo;My understanding is Lake-Lehman, Tunkhannock and Holy Redeemer will continue to practice,&rdquo; said Majikes, who contracted COVID-19 in October.
				Berwick decided prior to Monday&rsquo;s announcement to hold off competing in boys and girls basketball, boys and girls swimming and wrestling until after the New Year. Its teams had been practicing. MMI Prep decided while fall sports were finishing up that it wouldn&rsquo;t compete in winter sports. The school didn&rsquo;t play fall sports.
				Costello said in the email the decision was made &ldquo;in an effort to preserve the winter sports season.&rdquo; He added: &ldquo;Over the next several weeks, we will be working with the league to modify the schedules based on this temporary pause. These actions are in place as part of our civic duty to help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.&rdquo;
				The decision will have a major impact on winter schedules. Friday was the first day for winter sports with several boys and girls basketball non-conference games on the schedule. The WVC swimming season was set to start Dec. 15 and the WVC wrestling season a day later.
				The suspension will also affect the WVC boys and girls basketball regular seasons. The WVC Championship Tournament between the top-two teams in each division has been canceled to allow extra days to complete the conference season. Both seasons were to start Jan. 2 and some teams won&rsquo;t likely have the 15 practices required by the PIAA before playing a game. The first official practice date for winter sports was Nov. 20, although many schools didn&rsquo;t start until later.
				Crestwood was scheduled to start winter sports practices Monday under strict COVID-19 protocols.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a challenge, it&rsquo;s going to be hectic, it&rsquo;s going to be different,&rdquo; Crestwood boys basketball coach Mark Atherton said prior to Monday&rsquo;s announcement. &ldquo;It seems like a different kind of practice, so it&rsquo;s going to be interesting to see what kind of basketball we&rsquo;re going to have.&rdquo;
				Wyoming Seminary&rsquo;s first winter sport practices were scheduled for Wednesday. Pittston Area started on time, logged five practices and then was shut down because of COVID-19 cases in the junior high program and the school district. The Patriots were going to resume Wednesday.
				Some teams were close to the 15-practice requirement, and Wyoming Valley West boys basketball had two scrimmages. The Spartans were scheduled to play at Nanticoke Area on Friday.
				&ldquo;We have been fortunate unlike some others,&rdquo; Valley West first-year coach Chris Parker said. &ldquo;We were able to scrimmage Hanover this past Monday and were able to scrimmage Northwest this past Friday. We have been able to play against an opposition and have my kids see somebody else as opposed to just battle in practice.&rdquo;
				Majikes said the WVC was already having issues with basketball as some officials have elected not to work games.
				&ldquo;If we get through this year, so far I&rsquo;ve lost 10 varsity officials who indicated to me they are not going to referee due to COVID and job-related matters, which is fully understandable,&rdquo; Majikes said. &ldquo;If we get through this and have games, which I hope we do, you may see guys back-to-back which we normally don&rsquo;t do unless it&rsquo;s a snow emergency. You&rsquo;ll see younger guys brought up.&rdquo;
				The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, which consists of schools in the Lehigh Valley and Poconos areas, announced last week it was delaying its winter sports seasons until Jan. 15. The EPC also makes up most of District 11, which decided in the fall not to participate in the PIAA state football playoffs and instead play only district tournaments.
				The PIAA Board of Directors meet on Wednesday via Zoom. Although winter sports aren&rsquo;t on the agenda, it&rsquo;s likely executive director Bob Lombardi will address them during his post-meeting press conference.

H.S. Sports: Wyoming Valley Conference schools suspend athletic competitions until Jan. 4