Hi, all:
As is the duty of any organization that brings people together, we are gauging our club response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote as we may seem from the city centers confirmed to have cases, the nature of highly infectious viruses requires proceeding with an abundance of caution.
Ultimately, we will follow the guidance of White Township & the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As I’m sure you’ve witnessed in recent days, such guidance can be fluid on an hour-by-hour basis.
Currently, the Commonwealth calls for cancelling or postponing any event that brings together 250 or more people. That number in Ohio is 100 people. It stands to reason that Pennsylvania’s guidance could be revised down at any time.
Right now, we plan to proceed with the final two weeks of Winter Futsal matches as scheduled. Those events should bring together fewer than 50 people at a time — well below current guidance. I will note that we are only doing this because the youth hockey tournaments that were scheduled for S&T Arena over the next two weekends were just cancelled this afternoon. Had they proceeded, I would have cancelled our league with so many people in that building from all over Western PA.
Men’s & Women’s pick-up will also tentatively continue over the remainder of March, given no further changes in guidance.
We are planning one big change, however: We are cancelling the all-club party that was to take place during the three championship matches on March 22nd. These matches will now take place under normal league conditions, just the two teams at a time, at 12:00pm, 1:00pm, and 2:00pm. If you’re not to play in any of these matches, do not show up at the arena.
In addition, we will continue with current planning and drafting of our 7v7 & 4v4 leagues. The Adult 7v7 draft will still occur Monday evening at Noble Stein from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. We will announce 4v4 planning dates next Tuesday. For our Over-40 squad members, all the above guidance applies with the addition of any edicts we receive from WPASA.
What’s above represents the most lax response the club is willing to take given the information we have right now. We’ve weighed more aggressive responses. I personally welcome our members’ feedback. Please do not hesitate to contact me either through TeamSnap, or at [email protected]. Or if you have my number, text me. Given the nature of the internet, I’m not going to post my number here.
Please keep an eye on this space for any further information in the coming hours, days, weeks, and months. I will update this post with any changes in guidance as I receive it, right up until the planned kick-off of our first match on Sunday at 10:00AM. This will of course go out to TeamSnap, as well.
It’s a weird time, communication lines are open — again, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Thanks,
Nate
your friendly neighborhood program director
