PENNSYLVANIA- March Madness canceled.  NBA suspended.  NHL suspended.  MLB delayed.  Professional and college sports both have been majorly affected by the coronavirus and for the high school athletes, all they can do is sit around and hope and, if religious, pray a bit for the spring season to still happen.

The PIAA, which I hope this article gets to, I ask that you as an athletic association, take your time before making a decision on what will happen to the spring sports season.  The NCAA rushed into making a decision by cancelling playoffs for spring sports.  Please PIAA, do not make this same mistake.  Let this whole unprecedented scenario play out a little bit.  If a decision is made to cancel the season too early, and then the virus calms down and things get better, the season would have been wasted for no reason.  All I ask, along with many other coaches, athletes, parents, and fans, is to take your time.

I think every student athlete and their family members understands the risk from human contact with others during this time, therefore it should be up to the student and their families if they want to pull out from their sport’s season,  The athletes should not be forced into an end to their season, the choice should be the athlete’s decision whether to play with the risk or not.

There are so many athletes not just in the state, but around the country, that have dreamed of playing for their high school team, just putting on the uniform that dons their school name on the jersey that they can wear with pride and accomplish a life long dream.  Canceling the season robs students of accomplishing dreams and once in a lifetime experiences.  Seniors won’t ever have the season they have been waiting for since the beginning of their high schools careers and for some, since they started playing their sport.  Some of them won’t be playing at the next level, so their careers end with no closure and the thought of what could have been.  Along with this, underclassmen miss a lot of opportunity for their recruitment.  Sports isn’t forever, and that’s why the PIAA needs to let students enjoy what could be there final games.

We always say sports is suppose to bring people together and unite us as a country, state, and community.  Well, with pretty much every other higher sports league being shutdown for the foreseeable future, high school sports needs to stay open.  This is how our communities will get through this strong.  Fans know the risk, if they don’t want to come they don’t have to, but there will be those who do come to games.  High school sports might even be more important for helping society through a hard time because it relatable and personable, because for the ones watching, they were either there on the field at one point or aspire to be on the field at one point.

PIAA please don’t cancel this spring sports season just yet, let’s see what happens to this monster of a virus in the coming weeks before children are robbed of memories and the moment of accomplishing dreams.