Hempfield sports postponed as coronavirus cases rise

Winter sports in the Hempfield Area School District are on hold as coronavirus cases rise across the region.

The decision, made by school administrators at Monday’s board meeting, was attributed largely to the number of coronavirus cases within the athletic department. Administrators decided to mirror academics, which moved to remote learning until Jan. 4.

“I feel, personally, if it’s unsafe to have students coming to school for academics, then we really should be postponing participation in athletics,” Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said.

“Certainly, in school we’re able to promote the 6 feet social distancing but, unfortunately, in many of our athletic programs that’s not possible.”

According to Athletic Director Brandon Rapp, three winter sports programs were shut down after covid-19 cases were identified on the teams. Several other programs have players quarantining after they were identified as close contacts.

Across the athletic department, there are four cases with “additional situations” that could increase those numbers. More than 50 people are quarantining, Rapp said.

“I think we have reached a critical point within the athletic department where we’re at,” he said. “We try to address everything on an individual basis, we look at each team individually, we look at how our program is impacted in comparison to the community, neighboring school districts. What we have to focus on is, how is Hempfield Area being impacted currently?”

Last week, coronavirus numbers were higher, with seven cases in the athletic department, more than 80 people quarantining and five programs shut down.

“I think those numbers speak volumes,” Rapp said. “With that being said, I think there’s still a tremendous opportunity for the remainder of the winter sports season.”

The athletic committee will reassess the situation in the coming weeks.

While school board members largely left the decision up to the administration, they gave their input during the public meeting. Several agreed with the move.

“I think we should suspend athletics for as short a time as we can,” said board member Diane Ciabattoni. “We’re not in school, we’re trying to keep everybody safe and I think it’s just one of the ways to spread it.”

Board member Jennifer Bretz agreed, adding, “The health of the staff and students should come first.”

Board members Scott Learn, Paul Ward and board President Tony Bompiani disagreed, but said they understood why it was made.

“I disagree with this decision because I think the students are, yes, a sub-population of our school district, but there also are teams that don’t have cases or have very few cases that are doing well with the control of this,” Learn said.

In response, Rapp said, “Not all of our teams are shut down. I would say, at this point in time, every team that we have … is impacted in some fashion.”

Ward said sports should not be connected to what is happening on the academic level. Bompiani said that if it is safe, students should play.

“The kids have suffered through this and you can say we’re shutting down academics we need to shut down athletics, too, and I understand that, but anything we can give them that’s as close to normalcy in life that has a positive effect on them,” Bompiani said.