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Thursday 13 August 2020 | 15:06 p.m.
Chaz Palla | Tribune Review
McGuffey goes through drills during workouts Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at McGuffey High School.
Gov. Tom Wolf said he would likely change his recommendation to delay youth sports, despite what the PIAA says, but described his role as “one person who has an opinion.”
Wolf was speaking at a news conference Thursday, saying he had not read the letter that PIAA administrators sent him earlier in the week. The governor wants youth sports to postpone interscholastic and recreational activities until at least January 1 to prevent possible spread of coronavirus.
The PIAA letter asked him to reconsider.
“This is my recommendation,” Wolf said. “I also recommended this summer that Pennsylvania residents not go to the Jersey Shore. I’m sorry, that’s my recommendation. You do what you want, and school districts will do what they want. This is my recommendation. It was then and it still is. ‘
Wolf did not recall when asked what information the PIAA could provide to change his mind.
“I’m not sure what they could say that would make me change my mind about what I believe is the right thing to do,” Wolf said. ‘They made the decision to make it themselves. I admit I’m just one person. Maybe I’m a mayor, but I’m one person who has an opinion on what we should do here. ”
That leaves the PIAA into a dilemma with fall sports scheduled to begin in 10 days. The PIAA had hoped to persuade Wolf to change his recommendation before the board resumes on August 21, but the governor’s remarks Thursday made that more likely.
If his recommendation does not change, the PIAA could choose to delay sports until January or go ahead without the support of Wolf and his administration.
Speaking at a joint press conference with State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, Wolf said the recommendation puts education ahead of athletics.
“We try everything we can to make sure we get our kids back to learning,” Wolf said. ‘I do not see how the transport of any age population back and forth across county boarders is going to help in the effort to reduce this disease and teach us back. That’s what we (sports) put on pause. The focus should be on learning. ”
Wolf said he used his experience as the parent of former PIAA athletes.
“If I set priorities for my family, I think I would put education above ground there,” he said.
Levine was asked about the data used to support the shutdown for youth sports after she was declared out of state on Monday. Many league sports classes competed throughout the spring and summer, and PIAA teams returned in offseason workouts in June, but Levine said Thursday there is not much data on the impact of sports on covid-19 spreads in Pennsylvania.
“We do not have a lot of granular data or quantitative data of the contact trace,” Levine said. “There had not been so much activity. There have been some, but not as we see in the fall. Kids are not back in school and not in school sports, so I can not have the data on that until it happens. “
Levine pointed to the decisions made by college conferences to close down fall sports, saying that the Wolf administration’s recommendation was based on “the same data on the infection (s) of the virus on the impact on children.”
Chris Harlan is a Staffune Review Staff Writer. You can contact Chris via email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
