PIAA denies proposal to allow football scrimmage day after heat acclimatization

By: Jerry DiPaola
Monday, March 30, 2020 | 4:04 PM

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The PIAA Board of Directors on Monday voted to deny a proposal that would have allowed schools to hold a non-contact scrimmage with an opponent the day after the five-day heat acclimatization period in August.

Teams still will be allowed to hold a full-contact scrimmage the following Friday before playing their first game a week later in Week Zero.

In other action:

• The board added a provision to its by-laws that would allow students who transfer after 10th grade to be eligible for the postseason if the student’s family can prove the transfer was necessitated by “an involuntary substantial change in financial condition and resources that compel withdrawal from a school.”

• The board also voted female golfers choosing to compete on boys teams in the postseason must play from the boys’ tees. Girls at schools that don’t offer a girls team are permitted, prior to the postseason, to use a set of forward tees (about 85% of the total yardage of the course). In the postseason, those girls then would play in the girls competition, assuming they qualify.

• The board approved a provision that bans students who have reached the age of 19 from participating in any practice for the collision sports of football, wrestling and boys lacrosse. The exceptions are students who reach 19 on or after July 1.

• The board officially approved the mergers of the Leechburg and Apollo-Ridge boys soccer teams and the Sewickley Academy and Quaker Valley Middle School baseball teams.