All interscholastic athletic competition will have to wait until January 1, 2021 to resume their activities. This is what the Philadelphia Public League established due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement was made by James Lynch, the School District’s Athletic Director through an email sent to athletic directors at schools across the city.
The suspension includes the entire School District of Philadelphia.
The league said this decision is in accordance with Gov.Tom Wolf´s recommendation to delay fall sports until 2021 made last week. “In accordance with Governor Wolf’s recommendations that were made on August 6th, the Philadelphia Public League will be suspending all interscholastic athletic programming through January 1, 2021,” the statement said.
You can read: Gov. Tom Wolf recommends no high school sports until 2021
It also notified the development of a virtual program. “Our focus in the immediate future will be on developing a robust virtual program this fall to engage our student-athletes in a meaningful way as it pertains to NCAA Eligibility, sport leadership programming, post-secondary readiness, and health and wellness programming, in addition to creating a plan to provide individualized skill building and fitness workouts when permitted to resume safely.”
However, the statement from the league considers to be open to change the policies if the pandemic situation changes. “If guidelines released by the Governor’s office change, or are updated in a way that would allow programming to resume, we reserve the right to revisit our decision and provide further guidance on a safe return to play,” the statement read.