Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League cancels 2020 season

The Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League announced Monday morning it has canceled its 2020 season.

A message on Twitter said the decision was made after the league’s board of representatives expressed and discussed concerns over several months and also presented ways to possibly have a season amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“At the end of the day, the majority of the Board of Representatives felt the hurdles to conduct a season in an environment that would be safe for our players, coaches, cheerleaders, volunteers, families and friends was too much to overcome,” an additional Twitter message read.

The WPYFL developed guidelines for a return to football this fall and released them June 25. They were based on guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and PIAA, as well as local school districts and governments.

“I know everyone is disappointed, and there is probably no one more disappointed than me,” WPYFL president Bill Spencer said.

“This is a 365-day-a-year job, and I love traveling all over the place in the fall to watch all the kids play. There are some who might not agree with the decision, but at the end of the day, we felt it was for the best. Overall, the main goal is to keep everybody safe.

“If you read the guidelines for the high schools, it’s going to be a challenge for them to meet all of them, and they have paid staff. It wasn’t fair to have each organization’s volunteers face the liability and scrutiny every day. There would be so much pressure on them.”

We are truly heartbroken this decision was made but at the end of the day the WPYFL and its member organizations have a greater responsibility than youth football. It is to do our part to help keep our communities safe.

— Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League (@WestPennYFL) August 3, 2020

The league had season dates in place for its 36 area programs and more than 100 teams in three classifications including the start of heat acclimation (Aug. 10), the Kickoff Classic Games (Aug. 29-30), the start of the regular season (Sept. 5-6) and the start of the playoffs (Oct. 24-25).

“It was a really tough decision,” said Brian Pritts, one of two representatives to the WPYFL board of directors from league member Southmoreland.

“You don’t want to take away opportunities for kids to have activity, and the decision was put off for as long as possible. There were just too many unknowns out there right now. Schools are going through those unknowns, the PIAA has structured a policy, the WPIAL has delayed the start of fall sports. It’s just kind of the trickle-down effect from that.”

The announcement from the league follows the cancellation of other area youth leagues. The Big East Youth Football League, with 11 teams in eastern Allegheny County and Westmoreland County, called off its season early last month over similar safety concerns.

Spencer said that the WPYFL is looking into possibility of playing some type of a season in the late winter or early spring.

The WPYFL’s 36 members stretch across six counties and 2,792 square miles in Southwestern Pennsylvania, making it one of the largest youth football organizations in the country.

To be more representative of the membership, the league in March changed its name from the Washington Greene Youth Football League.