Governor Wolf eases COVID-19 restrictions throughout Pennsylvania. But what does it mean for high school athletes ?

With COVID-19 cases dropping along with a state-wide vaccination plan, Tom Wolf recently revised and lifted mitigation restrictions.

The revised mitigation restrictions include:

• Revised maximum occupancy limits for indoor events to allow for 15% of maximum occupancy, regardless of venue size.

• Revised maximum occupancy limits for outdoor events to allow for 20% of maximum occupancy, regardless of venue size.

• Eliminate out-of-state travel restrictions.

With the city in a more relaxed state, , what does it mean for high school students, and more importantly , high school sports.

Late February of 2019, sports shut down when the world began taking the virus more seriously. It left millions of athletes dumbfounded and stuck in place , with no word on how long they’d be without sports. Many student-athletes and athletic directors alike have been forced to make tough changes in response to the mandated quarantine , leaving them clueless on what it means for their futures and college careers. Scott Pitzner, the Athletic Director at Carver High School of Engineering and Science, had to reimagine what his program would look like.

“In the beginning of the year, it was easy since there were no sports going on,” Pitzer said. “It was difficult to try to plan for the future when everything was so unsure, but as far as how many hours I was working, things were easier than normal. Once things started picking up with sports and we were getting close to getting back to play things became more difficult. At this point, my head is spinning! I am the Chairperson for Boys Soccer and Boys and Girls Swimming along with being the Athletic Director and a Teacher. I was running a swimming season, planning and scheduling for a soccer season, and also trying to prepare my coaches and school personnel for what was coming next.”

With the 2020-2021 season approaching for spring sports , Baseball coaches, like William Otto, are in the preparation process, with the intent of covering everything possible to ensure they can play this year. He’s had several meetings with Pitzer and with other coaches from across the district to keep communication open and talk about updates. “I know that at least as far as I see it, it's not an issue in terms of coaches and athletic directors not wanting to play and not wanting to do stuff, it's just a matter of the COVID restrictions and the safety stuff,” Otto said.

His team had been meeting and practicing from about January to late February of late year, only to have their season cancelled. With all the precautions taken this year, Otto is hopeful for the return of baseball along with the rest of the school’s sports.

“I mean, with regard to baseball just like getting to play getting to be on the field, last year we schools closed down what I think was a day or two days before our first game so we never actually got to play any games at all. So, just to like get out there and actually play will be nice hopefully that can all happen with these restrictions.”