WILKES-BARRE – The Abington Heights basketball teams went from not being certain they would even have a season to having a chance to earn extra home games in the span of 24 hours.
The Abington Heights School Board passed a motion at its Jan. 6 meeting to move forward with plans for the winter sports teams to begin Lackawanna League competition Jan. 21.
Included in that motion was giving the administration authority to set up plans to transition the teams into full practice sessions.
Prior to the meeting, Abington Heights basketball and wrestling teams had been doing conditioning and other drills, but without the contact required to be fully ready for competition.
District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association met Thursday to further its plans for the postseason, which needed adjustments because of the way the coronavirus pandemic has led to the shortening of the regular season and state tournaments.
The district decided to keep the bulk of its basketball tournament formats the same as in the previous two-year cycle, but did change to using home gyms for quarterfinal and semifinal games.
In almost every recent season, that would have earned at least one – and usually two – home games for each Abington Heights basketball team.
Abington Heights had not allowed any of its contact sports teams to compete in the fall. The Comets sat out football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball.
Although winter teams had been practicing, the social distancing measures still being required by the district made it very difficult, for example, for teams to work on preparations to rebound and play defense.
The board voted 8-1 to pass the motion that authorized “administration to take all required action to prepare Abington Heights athletic teams to participate in the 2021 winter interscholastic sports season tentatively scheduled to begin on January 21, 2021.”
The motion included the development of a “Winter Promise” commitment for players to try to make the process as safe as possible.
At its Thursday meeting, the District 2 committee voted unanimously to keep its 11 basketball championship games at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township for the sixth straight year.
Those championships are scheduled March 11-13, a week later than the tentative plans that were originally created.
The Abington Heights girls have played at the arena all five years, winning four championships before losing in the 2020 Class 5A title game.
Abington Heights also won boys championships the first four years at the arena, but the Comets did not make the 2020 final.
If the Abington Heights teams reach the district final, they would play in 5:30 p.m. Class 5A finals. The boys game is scheduled for March 12 and the girls is set for March 13.
Lackawanna Trail competes in Class 2A where the girls play March 12 at 3 p.m. and the boys play March 13 at 10 a.m.
The 10 a.m. start was needed when the district stretched the time between games from two to 2 ½ hours to allow for the building to be emptied and sanitized.
Current restrictions put attendance at five percent of building capacity.
Allowing for team personnel and staffing, District 2 chairman Frank Majikes said that would mean about 250 spectators for each participating team.
“We’re hoping for that five percent to be increased,” Majikes said.
The district also made tentative plans for wrestling, with sectional qualifying Feb. 13, following by finals Feb. 20 at sites to be determined, and swimming, with competition at the Wilkes-Barre Catholic Youth Center at the end of February and/or start of March.
The PIAA is still waiting on possible adjustments to the state swimming championships because of the likelihood of Bucknell University being unavailable.
