Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf has recommended high school sports not be played the rest of this year.
Yesterday several state representatives took to the floor to speak out against the governor's recommendation.
Have a listen to what State Rep Jesse Topper has to say in this short video and think about the points he makes. Note that Topper is on the coaching staff at Bedford HS.
When I hear things like "It's not worth the risk." First of all as a coach, I've had the opportunity to watch this football team at Bedford prepare for this year. And we told them, wear your mask, social distance at meetings, split your time in the weight room. They've done all those things. We've said if you follow these protocols you'll have the opportunity to play.
To now come back to them and say, "You've done everything right; but you know what we still don't have the will to let that happen." And I think back to those words "It's not worth the risk." We know, must of us up here have either played or been a part of athletics, we understand that there is inherent risk to what we do. That's why there is an ambulance that sits out by the football fields on a Friday night. We know that there is risk.
But always that risk / benefit reward ratio has always been left to the families -- to determine is this worth the physical risk. Well, I don't see any difference in that now.
Quite frankly, the governor has himself said when he was out in a protest in the streets of Harrisburg he said when asked, "Did you follow your own protocols?" He goes, "No I didn't because I felt the cause was worth the risk." Well we can not just allow one person in Pennsylvania to discern for everyone which causes are worth the risk and which are not. That decision needs to be left up to parents and up to families. Is it worth the risk? I believe that in my case it is, maybe some other people don't; but at the end of the day if we're going to leave that decision only up to one person then we have a problem that is far greater than Covid-19.
Representative Topper makes some very good points there. Many school districts in Pennsylvania have reported very, very few cases of Covid. Will his words help some of those seniors have a final high school football season? Hopefully we'll hear some good news out of the great state of Pennsylvania in the coming weeks.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest coaching information.
Friday August 21 update> The PIAA has announced Fall sports can commence beginning Monday the 24th.