Here’s a new one for WPIAL athletic directors: Game called on account of solar eclipse

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, April 4, 2024 | 6:01 AM

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Athletic directors are not surprised when rain or snow wreaks havoc on spring sports schedules. But there’s another act of nature — one far more infrequent — that has WPIAL schools rescheduling games slated for Monday.

It’s the solar eclipse.

The much-anticipated astronomical event will arrive in Western Pennsylvania between 2-4:30 p.m. Monday with max eclipse occurring around 3:17 p.m., according to the National Solar Observatory. That’s right around when many baseball, softball and tennis players are starting afternoon contests — assuming good weather.

As a result, schools cautiously are pushing start times later Monday or rescheduling games for another day.

“This is the first time I can remember (an eclipse) affecting the schedule,” said WPIAL administrator Vince Sortino, who was previously a longtime athletic director.

There’s good reason. The last time part of Pennsylvania was included in the path of a total solar eclipse was 1806.

As the WPIAL’s chief operating officer, Sortino oversees the league’s section schedules. He said the WPIAL has left decisions about when to play Monday’s games up to individual schools.

“It’s just like a rainout or any other game they move during the regular season,” he said. “We pretty much don’t get involved. The only sort of directive we give schools is that they’ve got to get in their section games (at some point). How they do that and when they do that is up to them.”

School administrators largely are concerned about eye damage that health experts say can occur if students gaze at the sun without proper protection. As a result, a number of schools also adjusted their class schedules Monday with remote learning or an early dismissal.

“Obviously, the health and safety of the kids is our first and foremost concern,” Norwin athletic director Mike Burrell said. “You never want to put them in danger.”

He said Norwin administrators discussed plans for a few weeks and elected to reschedule all of Monday’s games and delay any practices until after 6 p.m.

Classes were made remote that day.

“Typically, weather challenges are what we deal with in the spring,” Burrell said. “But sometimes you need to adjust to unprecedented territory.”

Blackhawk on Tuesday joined the list of schools making adjustments to their sports schedules. The Cougars announced their start times for softball and tennis would be delayed an hour until 5 p.m., and their baseball game with Hopewell was rescheduled for later in the week.

Also, Blackhawk coaches were instructed to keep everyone indoors until 4 p.m.

“We’ll keep everyone inside and away from the eclipse,” Blackhawk athletic director Jim Riggio said.

According to NASA’s website, it’s unsafe to look at the sun during a solar eclipse without specialized eye protection for solar viewing. NASA said the only exception would be “during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse,” which won’t occur in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The eclipse in the Pittsburgh area will reach about 97%, according to the National Solar Observatory’s online map. Only the northwest corner of the state including Erie falls in the path of totality.

With so much hype around the event, Riggio said it would be impossible to ask high school athletes to spend a few hours outside Monday afternoon and not look up.

“If you have infield-outfield practice, you have eight kids standing around looking at the sky while you’re hitting a ball to the ninth person,” Riggio said with a laugh.

Burrell agreed.

“If you’re a teenage kid who’s told to not look up, what are you going to do?” Burrell said. “You look up.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.