Winter Sports Remain Up in the Air in Keystone Central

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Under the best of circumstances, the Keystone Central School District on Friday will give an all-clear for winter sports practices to finally begin at Central Mountain and Bucktail High Schools. District superintendent Jacquelyn Martin has been providing Friday updates on the coronavirus impact within the school district, relative to both teaching and extra-curricular activities. So far, since early in November, class work has been online and extra-curriculars shut down.

While athletes at Bucktail and Central Mountain are champing at the bit to begin their work, they have been unable to do so. November 20 was the first official date for pre-season practice so to this point the schools have lost three weeks of pre-season work. Under normal circumstances, varsity events would be beginning this weekend, but not this year. If and when a go-ahead for sports is given, the teams will need 15 days of practice before any competitions, pushing any events deep into December in the best case scenario.

Bucktail competes in the Northern Tier League, Central Mountain in the Heartland Conference. Here is what those leagues are saying:
The NTL has made Bucktail’s decision for them relative to games. The league has announced the postponement of winter competition until Jan. 4, with the start of practice allowed, for those schools able, on Monday of this week.

As for the Heartland Athletic Conference, there are no league restrictions at this point. The conference imposed a conference-only football schedule in the fall, but decided last week not to impose such a stricture for the winter. HAC president and Danville High School principal Jeremy Winn told the Sunbury Daily Item, “With COVID-19 anything could change at any time.

As a result, playing and schedule decisions are on a school-by-school basis. Many Heartland Conference schools are in practice currently; some others, including Central Mountain, are not. Selinsgrove has a full 22-game basketball schedule about to begin, while the Shikellamy boys’ basketball program will not start on time after the team went into quarantine last week.

Relative to attendance when events are held, Winn said that decision will be left to each school to decide: “We will follow all PIAA recommendations, but because each gym and locker room facility is different, we will expect the ADS of both teams to touch base before the event to discuss topics like attendance and facilities.”

Among other conferences, the Mid-Penn Conference, a Harrisburg area league which includes State College among its members, had announced it would start practice on schedule but pushed back the start of competitions one week, to Dec. 18. The Tri-Valley League, which includes Juniata and East Juniata High Schools, has left the start-up date to member schools; some schools there have begun practice, but others, including Juniata and East Juniata, won’t begin until Jan. 4 with no competitions until Jan. 21.

In the meantime, student athletes at Bucktail and Central Mountain will check their messages this Friday to see if they can soon start practice if the state doesn’t intervene in the interim.