Delco hoopsters deal with a PIAA tourney on hold

This article originally appeared in the March 14 edition of the Delco Daily Times

Bonner-Prendergast’s girls basketball team’s memorable overtime win in the second round of the PIAA Class 4A tournament Wednesday provided the Pandas with a lot of hope and good vibes.

They thought their run in the state playoffs was far from over.

The same could be said for the entire field of Delaware County schools still alive in the PIAA championships: Archbishop Carroll girls, Bonner-Prendergast boys, Cardinal O’Hara girls, and Chester Charter Scholars Academy boys.

Now the status of those tournaments is up in the air.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced the suspension or cancellation of most major sports operations in the country, from high schools to the pros. The PIAA announced Thursday the suspension of all winter championships for minimally a two-week period. Bonner-Prendie coach Tom Stewart held one final practice Thursday and went over “a bunch of scenarios” with his players on how to proceed.

“In the bigger scheme of things, it’s the right thing to do. The hope is that these precautions we are taking are going to help a lot of people,” said Stewart, whose coaching career goes back more than 50 years and who serves as Bonner-Prendergast’s Assistant Principal of Student Services.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, not in all my years. And I’m a lot older than most people.”

Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a two-week closing of all Pennsylvania K-12 schools on Friday afternoon. Most public schools here were following the Delaware County Pandemic Action Plan, which included three phases: monitoring, postponing, canceling. So now it’s two more weeks and counting.

High school sports are a minor concern during a pandemic as widescale as COVID-19 seems to be. It would shock no one that, after two weeks, the PIAA decided not to resume its basketball playoffs.

That truth is hard to swallow for the players.

“The kids are upset because we were on a good run, we were really playing well,” Stewart said. “We were probably playing the best basketball of the year. … But what are you going to do? This is real serious. We have to look out for each other.”

Bonner-Prendie endured a difficult regular season, losing 11 of their 18 games. The Pandas lost in the quarterfinal round of the Catholic League playoffs before winning their District 12 playoff game for a berth in the state tourney. They have won three straight games, none bigger than Wednesday’s dramatic, come-from-behind triumph over Eastern York.

“The kids were upset, but do you know what they said? ‘We’re going out as winners.’ We can claim that we won a state championship as much as anyone else can.,” Stewart said, laughing. “And I think we had a good chance to beat Lansdale (Catholic), who we would have played next. We had two starters out when we played them in December, including Alexis Eagan who is a big part of our team and was playing great. I can’t say for sure we would’ve kept winning, but we were playing pretty solid basketball.”

Stewart’s gut feeling is that his Pandas have played their final game.

“I can’t see the PIAA saying we’re going to come back and play the playoffs, because I’m not sure how they are going to do it,” he said. “We can’t even practice for these next two weeks. The only scenario I can see is if they ran a Friday-Saturday-Sunday tournament, sort of like an AAU tournament, and you’re playing two games a day. That way every team has the same kind of schedule, but realistically, I don’t know how they could do it. You have spring sports that you have to worry about. We have three or four kids who start for me who are going to start softball and lacrosse. For us, we’re not a big enough school that these kids only play one sport.

“I feel sorry for them, but if it’s over, then we ended it on a good note.”

• • •

The status of the spring sports season is impossible to predict. Central League athletic directors will remain in touch over the next two weeks to come up with plans regarding scheduling, if or when school resumes. 

The PIAA spring sports season was scheduled to get under way this week with tennis. Most other sports, including lacrosse, baseball and softball, were scheduled to start next Friday.

With the potential of a shortened season, the priority for the Central League would be to play as many league games as possible.

“We will have to do some brainstorming, with new ideas on how we move forward,” Ridley athletic director Jack Signor said. “It could be maybe having tournaments or play dates.”

Without practices for the next two weeks, spring sports athletes are left on their own to remain prepared for the upcoming season. 

“I know that a lot of our track kids have their individual running plans, things they were already doing in practice,” Signor said. “I’m sure coaches would have had discussions with them saying that you need to go home and try to continue to the best you can on your own.”

Private schools such as The Haverford School and The Episcopal Academy suspended athletics through at least March 30.