Trending
Last high school football season, it seemed as though everyone involved was willing to do whatever it took to have a season after the 2020 PIAA spring scholastic year was completely wiped out.
That included making regular-season games a "no contest" when one team could not compete due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the postseason, district and PIAA officials had no choice but to make schools who were dealing with COVID-19 issues forfeit, such as Southern Huntingdon being forced to in its scheduled District 6 Class 2A quarterfinal game against Cambria Heights.
Following guidance from the PIAA after its meeting Wednesday, regular-season games, at least in District 6, will revert back to the same policy that was enforced in the playoffs, and since the "Eisenhower administration" in the regular season, according to PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi.
If a team can't play, due to COVID-19 or any other reason, and the team they were scheduled to play can't find another opponent, the team with the COVID-19 issues will be given a forfeit loss, and the team scheduled to play them will be given a forfeit win.
An example of this played out recently in the area when Everett was forced to cancel its game against Glendale, and the Vikings were unable to find another opponent.
The PIAA attempted to make it a policy that all canceled games would be forfeits at its meeting on Wednesday, but that motion was voted down in favor of passing it as simply a guidance for individual districts to decide.
When contacted by the Mirror, District 6 chairman Bill Marshall confirmed his district would be following the guidance.
"All games cancelled are forfeits this year," Marshall said.
Everett was also unable to play this week's game against Bellwood-Antis, and Mount Union did not have enough players to take on Southern Huntingdon.
However, neither team will receive a loss, because Bellwood-Antis agreed to travel to Southern Huntingdon. In a case where the team left without a game finds another, the team unable to play simply has a bye week with no impact on its record.
For what it's worth, most teams in our area, including Glendale unsuccessfully last week, have done everything they can to find another game when their original game has been postponed, which should be commended considering they are giving up a free win to give their kids a chance to play football -- which is why they signed up to play the sport in the first place.
Unfortunately, the PIAA felt compelled to push for Wednesday's guidance, because it felt there were teams across the state using the "no contest" loophole as a way to get out of unfavorable matchups, even when a team was actually healthy enough to play.
Lombardi said board members were told of situations where a team had 45 players, was missing eight, and tried to cancel a game against a tough opponent while still practicing, which Lombardi said seemed to "fly in the face of canceling the game."