COVID-19’s impact on high school sports has been felt far and wide.

This week it hit close to home twice for Tamaqua Area High School Athletic Director Mike Hromyak and the Blue Raiders’ football team.

“I had three games scheduled for this Friday,” Hromyak said. “I started with North Schuylkill. Picked up Pittston. And now we’re playing Pen Argyl.”

It was late last week that Hromyak found out that the Blue Raiders’ Schuylkill League game with the Spartans had been canceled due to issues with the coronavirus at North Schuylkill.

Hromyak immediately went to work trying to find a replacement so the Blue Raiders had a chance to get out on the field this weekend.

“Football is a sport where you can only play once a week, and we already had a shortened season,” Hromyak said. “So to not play on a given Friday, is disappointing for not only us as administrators and coaches, but it certainly is upsetting for our kids, their parents and their families.

“But this season, you just never know from day-to-day if we’re going to be able to play a game. I mean … maybe tomorrow I will get another call. You just never know.”

With the use of technology, and having some close contacts with other athletic directors, Hromyak was able to land another game with Pittston Area on Tuesday afternoon.

“Here’s the process I went through,” Hromyak explained. “I have my AD contacts in District 2, 3 and 4, and obviously 11, that I basically sent an in search of email to saying ‘I need a game for next Friday night, if anybody hears or knows of anybody, send them in my direction.’

“So that got the process going pretty quick.”

But just as fast as Hromyak could relax thinking the process had worked, he was searching again.

Just 24 hours after securing a game with District 2 Pittston Area, he got the unwanted call from Pittston that one of its players had tested positive for COVID, meaning Hromyak was once again on the hunt for a new opponent.

“It’s a daily thing,” he said. “ADs are on the watch for each other, on the lookout for each other that if we know of anybody that is in similar situations, that we try and lead them to get together,” Hromyak said. “On Tuesday, the AD at Pen Argyl called me to see if I filled my vacancy yet because their game for this Friday night had just been postponed because of COVID issues at Notre Dame.

“I told him that we had filled our date, but I gave him some other schools I had discovered had open dates this weekend.”

On Wednesday when Pittston informed Hromyak that they could no longer play, he knew right where to check first for a replacement

“I immediately called Pen Argyl to see if they filled their vacancy yet, and they hadn’t, and just like that we once again had a game.”

Tamaqua is set to host Pen Argyl this Friday at 7:15 p.m.

“One thing that worked out is we have not had to negotiate home or away,” Hromyak said. “We were originally scheduled to be at home with North Schuylkill so we wanted to keep a home game. Pittston agreed to come to our place. and Pen Argyl was also fine coming here because it was going to be on the road anyway.

“Now we’re at the time of the year when you run into homecomings and seniors days, so we we got lucky that neither of the schools we found had things like that scheduled this week. The bottom line is that it’s all about getting a game for the kids, and thankfully we were able to do that and still play at home.”

Hromyak stressed that he had plenty of help making the schedule juggling possible.

“I spoke with coach (Sam) Bonner, Principal (Tom) McCabe, and with the other schools involved and we were all on the same page with one intent, and that was - ‘Hey, let these kids play,’” said Hromyak.

“In today’s day, you don’t know if you’re going to play next week. So, let’s let our kids play the game they love. We got them a game, and we got them a competitive game, and we got a game that is relatively close for our opponent as well.”

After a crazy week of trying to make Friday night football possible this week, Hromyak is just happy things worked out in the end.

“Like I said, I’m glad for the football team, cheerleaders, band, that we were able to get a game,” Hromyak said. “Because now, you just never do know if it’s going to be our last game. We’re going to keep our fingers crossed.”

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MILESTONE WIN ... Jim Thorpe’s 27-18 win over Tamaqua last Friday not only improved the Olympians record to 5-1, but it gave head coach Mark Rosenberger his 150th career victory.

Rosenberger took over the program in 1998 and currently has a career mark of 150-90 (. 625 win percentage). Only two coaches among Times News area teams have won more games than Rosenberger; Stan Dakosty - who had Rosenberger on his staff as an assistant for three years - has posted 311 victories, while Northwestern’s Bob Mitchell finished his career with 177 wins.

Other area coaches with over 100 wins include Lehighton’s Dave Parsons (136), and Northern Lehigh and Palmerton’s Jim Tkach (114).

Of Rosenberger’s 150 wins, 45 of them have been by shutout. He has also enjoyed winning seasons in 19 of his 23 years, including this season.

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THROW IT TO ZACK ... Lehighton’s Zack Hunsicker caught five passes against Blue Mountain last Thursday to raise his area-leading reception total to 34. The Indian receiver hauled in 35 passes a year ago.

If Hunsicker catches one more pass in 2020, he will become just the fifth area player since 1990 to have two different seasons of 35-or-more receptions.

The others to accomplish the feat include Northwestern’s Cam Richardson (38 in 2013 and 47 in 2014), Panther Valley’s Jake Dunn (36 in 2008 and 42 in 2009), Marian’s Scott Holloman (36 in 1996 and 52 in 1997), and Panther Valley’s Fenton Black (53 in 1991 and 68 in 1992).

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RUNNING QB ... Northwestern’s Justin Holmes ran wild against Salisbury last Friday, carrying the ball 23 times for 243 yards and a touchdown during a 39-28 victory.

That rushing total is the third most in a game by a Tiger since 1988. The only ones higher came from Brett Snyder (266 on Sept. 8, 1995) and Ben Clymer (254 on Nov. 9, 2007).

Only one other area quarterback ever had more rushing yards in a game, with Lehighton’s Cody Scherer running for 309 yards on Oct. 13, 2017 at Pottsville.

In the previous week against Palmerton, Holmes threw for 262 yards. He is just the sixth area player to have games of 200 passing yards and 200 rushing yards during their career. Holmes joins Scherer, Northwestern’s Ty Cunningham, and Jim Thorpe’s Ryan Saunders, Pat Duvigneaud and Jason Figura.

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FOUR A FIRST? ... Palmerton lost a wild 42-41 contest to Saucon Valley last Friday, but in the defeat the Bombers had four different receivers catch TD passes.

Those scoring tosses were hauled in by Ethan Recker, Lucas Heydt, Dan Lucykanish and James Denicola.

The four different receivers catching TD passes in the same game is believed to be a first in school history, as it hadn’t happened in the past 30 years, a span of 326 games.