The 2020-21 WPIAL winter sports season will begin as scheduled, the league announced on Wednesday after a meeting of the board.
The move comes after the start of the fall sports seasons were significantly delayed, and the seasons eventually shortened, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That won’t be the case for basketball, gymnastics, rifle, swimming and diving and wrestling.
Those sports can begin practices on Nov. 20, scrimmages on Nov. 27 and games can start on Dec. 11., except for rife, which will begin on Dec. 7. Only 12 WPIAL schools sponsor that sport.
According to the current COVID-19 mitigation plan from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pa. Department of Health, indoor venues of under 2,000 seats, which includes most WPIAL winter sports venues, may operate at 20% of capacity, or a maximum of 400 people. Venues with capacities between 10,000 and 2,001 can host 15% of a full crowd.
