On Aug. 6, Governor Tom Wolf spoke these words at a press conference:

“The guidance is that we ought to avoid any congregate settings, and that means anything that brings people together, and we have to do anything we can to defeat the virus.

“And any time we get together for any reason, that’s a problem because that makes it easier for the virus to spread. So the guidance from us and recommendation is that we don’t do any sports until January 1.”

The Department of Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, has also remarked about the situation.

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of young people less than 19 that have covid-19 in almost all regions of Pennsylvania,” said Levine. “We have seen that. We’re not able to track it through our case investigations to a specific game or a specific practice, but we have seen an increase and we’re concerned about that.”

This past Friday, the PIAA - the organization that authorizes and regulates high school sports in Pennsylvania - released its own statement.

“The PIAA board of directors voted Friday, 25-5, to conduct all fall sports as scheduled, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The PIAA made its decision despite a recommendation recently from Gov. Wolf and the Pennsylvania departments of health and education that school and recreation sports stop until Jan. 1.”

Wolf has since said he wasn’t “blindsided” by the PIAA decision to play the games, but he will not mandate that the schools postpone their fall seasons.

This confusion about to play or not to play leaves me scratching my head.

First, there is the realistic health concern.

If the games go on, there are plenty of ideas to prevent the spread of the virus. Unlike some sports (golf, tennis, and even cross country), there are others (football, soccer, volleyball, field hockey) that by their nature will have have athletes in constant close company during their games.

Sure, you can socially distance on the sidelines and have coaches, officials, and substitutes wear masks, but certainly not in the action on the field. There are shields football teams can add to the face masks on their helmets, but if you mandate in-game masks for soccer and field hockey players, breathing can become very difficult during the pace of running up and down the field.

If a player or coach tests positive on any team, this will likely force a two-week quarantine and stoppage of play. A decision was previously made to not allow any fans at high school sporting events, and that includes parents of the players.

If a player gets seriously injured and has to be transported by ambulance, how’s that going to fly when the athletic director has to call home to tell the mother and father their son or daughter is being taken to a hospital?

The game schedules, already abbreviated due to the later start of school, might have to be adjusted again if the virus spikes. For football, a 10-game season that was to begin Aug. 28 is now probably down to eight games starting Sept. 11.

Quarantines could reduce schedules to six games, four games or perhaps, none at all, leaving opponents with huge gaps between their weekly games.

If a school has to close due to a spike in positive cases, that could end the fall season immediately.

And what about all the cyber student athletes? If their parents opted to keep them away from the school during the day, will they let them go afterward to play sports?

Perhaps the governor has fumbled the ball over to the PIAA so they must now accept total responsibility if Covid outbreaks should occur.

To give the PIAA some credit for their decision to allow a fall season, senior athletes will at least be able to play some of their final high school games. Last year, seniors were denied their entire spring seasons due to the coronavirus.

To be honest, I’m more surprised by Wolf’s refusal to mandate a postponement than the PIAA’s decision to play. This is the same man who had shut down entire counties and their businesses when there were fewer than 10 reported positive Covid cases in the region This appears to absolve him from all responsibility and any consequences that may occur.

Perhaps, he’s worried about future litigation against him that now has become a weight on the shoulders of the PIAA. In any case, one has to wonder if concerns about health are really driving Wolf’s wavering of his authority.

He uses the reason that there is no data on high school sports and the effects of the coronavirus. Well, there might be some unfortunate data coming soon and that might have the governor and the PIAA stop all the games even after just one week, breaking the hearts of thousands of student athletes who are currently gearing up for their respective seasons.

After all, they are the pawns in this chess game being played between these two rival authorities.