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The PIAA Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce the minimum number of practices for winter sports before holding a competition.
				Basketball and wrestling would be required to have a combination of 10 practices, including those already conducted prior to Gov. Tom Wolf shutting down scholastic and youth sports from Dec. 12 until Jan. 4 due to a rise of COVID-19 cases in the state. Swimming and other sports &mdash; many of which do not affect the Wyoming Valley Conference &mdash; would need five total practices.
				PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi explained that sports such as swimming often use non-school facilities for practices and competitions and availability could be an issue if 10 total practices were required.
				The previous number of required practices was 15. The change is only for this winter season.
				The policy change doesn&rsquo;t mean games could be played Jan. 4. All basketball and wrestling teams would need to have four practices before a competition even if a team completed 10 practices prior. The four practices can not include scrimmages, which are normally considered a practice by the PIAA. So the earliest any WVC team can play would Jan. 8. Any WVC basketball and wrestling teams which haven&rsquo;t practice yet wouldn&rsquo;t be able to have a competition until Jan. 15 at the earliest.
				Teams can&rsquo;t hold more than one practice a day in order to shorten the timeline to return to competition. Virtual practices are prohibited.
				&ldquo;Part of the issue was some schools started practice, completed 15 days and participated in a contest,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Some schools started preseason practice and had X number of days and, thirdly, some schools didn&rsquo;t have any preseason practice at all.
				&ldquo;And when the governor came out and shut down everything to Jan. 4, people have met in their locales and tried to develop a schedule. So executive staff got to together and said &lsquo;Look, there was some concern at the board level about the return-to-play and how the 15 days are. Let&rsquo;s discuss if we could shorten those days without any compromisation of health and safety.&rsquo;&rdquo;
				Lombardi added the PIAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee felt comfortable with the reduction of practices. If Wolf extends the ban beyond Jan. 4, the issue will be discussed at the board meeting on Jan. 6.
				The board also addressed a few other items:
				&#8226; The state team wrestling championships will be moved to after the state individual championships. The team wrestling tournament was scheduled from Feb. 8-12. The championship matches in the individual tournament are scheduled for March 13.
				&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a date in front of me today,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little premature. We&rsquo;re trying to work through some sites. We also trying work through some availability at the Giant Center. I don&rsquo;t think having to make that determination today hurts anybody, but it gives them more flexibility to possibly get some type of a regular season done through January and February and to host a championship event.&rdquo;
				&#8226; The PIAA will continue to work with Bucknell University on a solution to host the state swimming and diving championships. The championships could be reduced from four days to two because the number of qualifiers is being cut from 32 per event to 16 because of the pandemic.
				PIAA Associate Executive Director Melissa Mertz said she is scheduled to meet with Bucknell officials on Jan. 12, but would like to do so prior to the Jan. 6 board meeting.
				&#8226; The board voted unanimously to continue litigation in the Commonwealth Court requesting to be excluded from being covered by the Right to Know Law.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not worried about access, and I don&rsquo;t think anyone who has asked for anything we haven&rsquo;t provided it to them,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;But when we (get) frivolous requests for over eight years for every possible check that&rsquo;s ever been written by 12 different districts and headquarters, we think that&rsquo;s obscene and what purpose does it serve.&rdquo;

H.S. Sports: PIAA reduces the required number of practices needed for all winter sports