The East Penn Conference and Colonial League have already pushed the start of winter sports back to January and last week Gov. Tom Wolf announced a three-week shutdown of extra curricular activities, which include high school sports, until January 4.

This pause in the spectrum of sports doesn’t come as much of a surprise, with the holiday season coming in full swing, the EPC won’t be starting until January 15, while the Colonial League will get going on January 11.

Teams that have gotten 15 practices under their belts before January 4 would still need four days of practice under their belts before resuming play. As by rule, if a team is forced to shutdown for 14 days, they would need four practice dates in order to compete again. Most sports programs in the winter, however, will need their full two-week window, starting on January 4, to get their 15 practice dates in.

This “pause” of the sports calendar should be different from the one that wiped out the spring seasons, as schools were shutdown back in the spring.

That isn’t the case now.

The PIAA also announced a change to this year’s winter sports championships last week, as only district champions will now advance to the state tournament.

That would give the team wrestling tournament in 3A and 2A 10 entrants in each format, with the rounds taking place on February 8 and 10 at localized sites. The 2A semifinals, finals and consolation finals would then take place in Hershey on February 12 with 3A following suite on February 13.

The PIAA basketball tournament will also feature district champions only, with the tournament getting underway on March 16.

The schedule for the tournament is below:

In boys basketball:

• the Class 2A champion opens at the District 4 champion March 17.

• the Class 3A champion travels to the District 3 champion March 17.

• the Class 4A champion hosts the District 4 champion March 16

• the Class 5A champion plays at the District 1 champion March 20.

There are subregional playoffs for boys in Class 1A and Class 6A.

In girls basketball:

• the Class 1A champion plays at the winner of the District 1-12 subregional final March 17.

• the Class 2A champion opens at the District 3 champion March 16.

• the Class 3A champion plays at the District 3 champion March 16.

• the Class 4A champion will host a first-round game against the District 4 champion March 20.

• the Class 5A champion plays at the District 1 champion March 20.

• the Class 6A district 2-4 subregional champion plays at the District 3 champion March 20.

Twelve state championship games will be played over three days:

• March 25 (1A-4A boys, 2A-3A girls).

• March 26 (2A-5A boys, 1A-6A girls).

• March 27 (3A-6A boys, 4A-5A girls).