'Let us play': Montgomery County students rally to save sports this fall
Students and parents rallied in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on Tuesday over a possible decision to suspend school sports this fall.
About 50 to 60 high school athletes and their families lined up outside Springfield High School holding "let us play" signs and asking people to honk if they support sports.
"We're out here trying to convince our school district and board that we really wanna play, we really wanna play sports and we're all behind our kids," said Shannon Dice, a parent of a high school football player.
Almost two weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of high school sports in the Commonwealth, voted to pause all mandatory fall sports activities until August 24 as they sought more dialogue.
READ MORE: PIAA endorses school sports for the fall in Pa., but delays decision for 2 weeks
Governor Tom Wolf has recommended postponing sports until January 1. The Board of School Directors of the School District of Springfield Township is trying to convince the governor they can provide a safe fall season for its athletes diligently following all the medical protocols. The students believe they can do so as well.
"We've been doing temperature checks, we've been filling out these papers with all of our symptoms. Every single morning we check our temperature, and practice no scrimmaging. We're enforcing social distancing," said senior lacrosse player Anya Kochanowicz.
Seniors who play football are worry their season will be canceled.
"All of us have been working really hard since March when everything closed down, just getting prepared for this time. And to not have that, it would be like we just wasted all of our time," said senior player Luke Gozzard.
"The toll on the mental health of the students, I think the pain that it would cause to cancel sports, even if we do go virtual, would be irreversible," said Dan Dailey, another senior football player.
While they did not address the issue of school sports at Tuesday night's virtual meeting, Superintendent Dr. Nancy Hacker said they are looking at ways to bring students together in small groups at various schools.
"We too are concerned about our students' mental health," said Hacker.
So it seems that we will have to wait until the PIAA Board of Directors meeting this Friday, when they will either abide by Gov. Wolf's recommendation to postpone sports until January 1 or go ahead and start the fall season in some form.
