On Tuesday morning, the Colonial League announced that the start of Winter sports would be delayed because of the concerns with the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases. By a very close vote of 7-6, the new start date will be moved from this Friday night to January 11 or later.
The six votes to start on time came from Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Northwestern Lehigh, Pen Argyl and Notre Dame. The seven votes casted for the delay included Saucon Valley, Southern Lehigh, Wilson, Moravian Academy, Catasauqua, Bangor, and Northern Lehigh.
League President Bryan Geist said, “Member schools decided to follow the recommendations from their health partners to delay league contests.
Health partners wanted help in mitigation efforts and both recommended no spectators.”
Northwestern Lehigh Athletic Director Jason Zimmerman said, “We respect the decision that a majority of our schools believe is best for their programs and our league. Northwestern Lehigh will continue to try and provide as many opportunities for our student-athletes to compete in the safest manner possible and for as long as we can safely do so. We will continue to rely on current data for our community and will continue to be in constant consultation with our partners at LVHN.”
Bangor Athletic Director Bron Holland said, “Given the current spike in C19 cases and recommendations from our health providers, our league voted to delay the start of the season. Until then, we all must follow the guidelines and have faith there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.”
There are a couple of exceptions that are in place regarding fans. Parents will be allowed for special events like 1000-point milestones in Basketball and 100-wins in Wrestling to go along with Senior Night.
Basketball will be reduced from 12 games to 10 or 11 while Wrestling will be reduced from 11 league matches to 8. Also, to qualify for the league tournament in Basketball, teams will need to play a minimum of 5 games and for Wrestling, 4 league matches. The Colonial League playoffs for Basketball will now include 8 teams and is scheduled for mid-February.
Notre Dame Girls basketball coach Josh Kopp said, “I can’t say I’m surprised by the decision. Obviously, with all that has been reported in the rise of positive cases and hospitalizations, I think most people figured that a delayed start would be a likely move. I’m disappointed for our team on losing out on chances to compete in December. It won’t be an easy conversation breaking the news to them.”
He added, “I’m sure this was not an easy vote to cast on either side. I certainly respect the decision that was made and based on the vote split, there was obviously support for consideration to move ahead. We will accept the decision and focus on preparing on the team for the opportunity to play in the future.”
When asked about today’s Colonial League decision to delay the start, Southern Lehigh Boys basketball coach Ben Tannous said, “My only thought in the decision is that it is a shame that the PIAA has not stepped in yet and made a plan that can work for all schools and leagues.”
Saucon Valley Athletic Director Bob Frey said, “The decision to postpone will allow for us to monitor COVID numbers both in our community and our school. Communities saw a significant spike in numbers after the Thanksgiving holiday and introducing competition against other schools could increase those numbers heading into another holiday. I believe we were all hoping that COVID numbers after Thanksgiving would have stayed lower than what we saw, but that did not become reality. The move to delay competition to several weeks after the next holiday season will allow us to hopefully see reduced numbers and for us to be able to begin competition and complete the season. Schools will continue to practice to prepare for the season. The ability to monitor our own students at practice and contact trace within teams is easier to do without introducing opponents at this time. We look forward to getting all our teams on the playing surface against opponents in January as they continue to work hard in December to prepare.”
The Colonial League now joins the East Penn Conference, which delayed the start of the season until January 15. The Schuylkill League, at the time of this article, is still planning on moving forward with the regular season, with league games expected to get underway on December 16-17 for Wrestling and Basketball with Swimming scheduled to start after the New Year.
