Just as Trinity High School in-person classes have been suspended until January, winter sports have come to a grinding halt. Starting November 20,  2020, basketball, swimming, wrestling, and rifle officially started practicing for the 2020-2021 winter sports season, but as of December, 10, 2020, Governor Tom Wolf released a statewide mandate explaining that schools are no longer allowed to practice or play for the remainder of 2020. This mandate went into effect starting midnight of Saturday, December 12, 2020. The restrictions will be lifted on January 4, 2021, at 8 a.m., enabling all sports to resume.

Schools across the state did everything they could at the beginning of the season: temperature and symptom checks were completed upon the entrance of buildings, capacity limitations were followed, and only coaches, players, and trainers were allowed into the games/meets. Because of these precautions, Trinity hoped that there would be a winter sports season, but due to the massive surge of cases and deaths since the end of October, a safe season isn’t possible.

In the press release, Wolf mentioned that there is a higher risk of spreading the virus in large gatherings.

“We know that COVID-19 thrives in places where people gather together. Therefore, these mitigation measures target high-risk environments and activities and aim to reduce the spread of this devastating virus,” Wolf stated.

Now the question arises of whether or not spring sports will be affected by these same limitations, or if they will be put to a stop as well. According to Trinity’s Athletic Director Mr. Rich,  it is all up in the air.

“At this time, we are unsure of how long things will last. I’d expect the same [limitations] to be the situation for the spring,” states Rich. 

There is, however, a vaccine that will begin being administered to people in the United States before the end of 2020, so there is hope for the spring sports season, and possibly in-person school again.

With this in mind, the only thing that can be done is staying safe and following all guidelines to ensure that the tough times will end. Keep up to date with recent announcements and press releases from Governor Wolf by watching/listening to the news and following along on social media platforms.