Jack Mason is preparing like there will be a season.

He's working on his golf game. Chipping. Putting. Smashing drives off a tee.

The Freeport senior is also putting in work on his hockey craft. Skating. Stick handling. Taking wrist shots.

But there is a cloud hanging over Mason and the rest of the athletes in Pennsylvania, a foreboding storm on the horizon that will hit shore Friday.

That's when the PIAA is expected to hold a meeting to make a final decision on the fate of fall sports in the commonwealth.

It's anyone's guess what the board will do: heed the strong recommendation of Gov. Tom Wolf and the departments of Health and Education and postpone all sports until Jan. 1; or plow ahead with the plan in place.

Mason hopes for the latter.

“Sports, especially for a lot of student-athletes is life,” Mason said. “It's what we do. It's our biggest hobby. It's what we work for every year. We put in hours and hours of work, working on our craft, and for it to be taken away is unthinkable.”

Mason battled through injuries last year in both sports, which affected his games.

During the golf season, Mason competed with a broken toe suffered while moving furniture.

While compensating for that injury, he tore a muscle in his shoulder.

“I could barely swing a club,” Mason said. “I was shooting par before the injury and was barely in the 40s after. I had a rough time.”

Mason is healthy now, shooting in the 30s again, and is ready to regain his form on the golf course this fall.

He doesn't understand why there is even a discussion about the safety of a sport like golf amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It's easy to social distance,” Mason said. “That's what's frustrating.

“Everyone is really upset,” he added. “Everyone is really bothered by having everything up in the air. Nobody is really happy with the way things are being led. Everyone is disappointed.”

Mason isn't the only one in his family affected by the PIAA limbo.

His father, Kelly, is the head hockey coach at Freeport.

Kelly said the PIHL will follow whatever the PIAA does when it comes to shutting down or continuing sports.

The PIHL season is unique because it overlaps two PIAA seasons: fall and winter.

The PIHL begins in October and runs through March.

“It's been a roller coaster,” the coach said. “You just don't know. You have hope and fear since all this began. We haven't had any sort of consistency since this began.”

Kelly's wife, Paula, is also impacted. She is the booster president for the golf and hockey teams at Freeport.

Kelly Mason said his players have followed closely all the rules set forth by the Freeport School District and have had no issues.

He is frustrated that it might not be good enough to save sports for his family.

“We started coming together at the beginning of July,” he said. “Through that whole process we've been pretty much normal. We've been successful doing it and diligent about following the protocols. The players know what's at stake. Now the governor says we should postpone everything. It just doesn't make sense to me.”

So far, 18 states have either canceled or postponed fall sports. Some states, like Vermont, have modified some sports, like football, to mitigate the possible spread of COVID-19.

Vermont will play its football season, but it will be 7-on-7 touch football.

For Jack Mason, postponing sports will do more damage than just two lost seasons for him.

“Think about this, our jail system, what's the worst thing you can do to an inmate if they get into trouble in jail? You put them in solitary confinement,” Jack Mason said. “That's the worst thing we do to the worst of our society. I get that's an extreme comparison, but if you shut down schools and you shut down sports, you're putting kids in isolation. It affects us all.”