Texas suspends sports because of swine flu; WPIAL once made similar move

 Mike White | Wednesday, April 29, 7:15 p.m.

All high school sports competitions in the state of Texas have been postponed until May 11 because of the swine flu outbreak.

The move suspends the baseball and softball seasons and eliminates the regional track championships that were to start Friday.

Believe it or not, a similar thing happened here in Western Pennsylvania a long time ago. It was because of of an outbreak of influenza.

The year was 1918 and the WPIAL did not play a football championship that year because of an influenza outbreak.

Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the Texas University Interscholastic League (Texas’ version of the PIAA) said league officials acted today on the recommendation of public health officials. The regional track champoinships were canceled altogether. To make up for that, the state track meet was extended from two to three days (May 14-16).

School officials in Texas say 53,000 students are out of school due to concern over the swine flu virus, and dozens of schools were closed to be sanitized. With 16 confirmed cases of swine flue in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry announced a disaster declaration Wednesday for the entire state. The declaration will allow officials to begin emergency protective measures and seek reimbursement from the federal government.