PIAA realignment leaves WPIAL Class 6A football and basketball with fewer teams | Trib HSSN – TribLIVE

Through: Chris Harlan

Tuesday, January 4, 2022 | 2:33 p.m.

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The most important ranking of the WPIAL officially drops next season in football and basketball.

As expected, WPIAL will only have five football teams in Class 6A for the next two years, according to updated enrollment figures released by the PIAA on Tuesday for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.

But WPIAL has also learned that the high school class for basketball is also shrinking.

WPIAL will only have 11 boys ‘and 11 girls’ basketball teams in class 6A next season, a roster that includes the boys from Upper St. Clair, who will play voluntarily. That total is down from the 17 boys ‘teams and 15 girls’ teams this winter.

Blame it on eastern Pennsylvania, which has a growing number of large schools. PIAA District 1, which includes the suburbs of Philadelphia, has 33 Class 6A football teams. The PIAA uses entry numbers to evenly divide teams into classifications every two years. PIAA counts boys and girls in grades 9-11.

“Our enrollments really aren’t changing, but the other side of the state is definitely increasing,” said WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman.

WPIAL now has an abundance of Class 5A teams.

Among the basketball teams, only North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Mt. Lebanon, Butler, Canon-McMillan, Hempfield, Norwin, Pine-Richland and Baldwin are Class 6A in boys and girls. Central Catholic and Upper St. Clair are 6A in men’s basketball. Bethel Park and Peters Township are 6A for girls.

In football, the only WPIAL teams with a Class 6A entry are North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Mt. Lebanon, Central Catholic and Canon-McMillan. Butler, a WPIAL school, is expected to continue playing football as an associate member in District 10.

Other notable changes include:

• In football, WPIAL Class 3A Central Valley and North Catholic finalists will join 4A next season. Central Valley is the two-time reigning state champion.

• Belle Vernon, WPIAL Class 4A runner-up, moves to Class 3A, said coach Matt Humbert. West Mifflin also joins 3A.

• Woodland Hills could have switched to Class 3A football but decided to stay in 5A, said coach Tim Bostard. The Wolverines boys and girls basketball teams will also play up to 5A.

• Baldwin, Hempfield and Norwin football teams move to class 5A. West Allegheny, Connellsville, Kiski Area and Latrobe join 4A.

• Serra Catholic has a Class A squad but intends to stay in 2A football, where he won the WPIAL title this fall.

• Lincoln Park men’s basketball is entered in Class 2A but will voluntarily play in 4A, said coach Mike Bariski.

• The Bethel Park, Fox Chapel, North Hills, Penn-Trafford and Peters Township men’s basketball teams are able to upgrade to Class 5A next season. North Hills is the highest ranked 6A team in the Trib HSSN rankings. North Hills daughters Shaler and Penn-Trafford also dropped to 5A.

WPIAL will not be creating new basketball sections until later this winter. For now, the league is focused on realigning fall sports.

In the next two weeks, WPIAL must decide: what should they do with a five-team ranking?

“We’re going to be reaching out to schools just to get a feel for what they’re looking for from our league, in terms of non-sectional schedules,” Scheuneman said.

One option would be to combine the 6A and 5A football teams into a single regular season schedule. If that were the case, the WPIAL would still crown separate 6A and 5A champions.

Or, WPIAL could explore the programming of Class 6A teams from neighboring districts, such as Altoona or Erie High. For now, Scheuneman said, all options are on the table.

The PIAA entry lists released on Tuesday did not include teams playing voluntarily, but no WPIAL team was due to join 6A football. The deadline to “play” is Wednesday.

The WPIAL Football Steering Committee meets on January 14. The WPIAL board is expected to approve new conferences and sections for fall sports on January 18.

The decline in the number of WPIAL class 6A schools has been steady over a six-year period. In 2016, the first year of six rankings, WPIAL had 14 6A football teams, as well as 22 boys ‘and 18 girls’ basketball teams.

Scheuneman attributed some of the drop to a change in the way the PIAA counts registrations. Schools have only 10% of students who are home-schooled, attend a charter school, or are vo-tech students.

However, this formula could be adjusted again in the future.

“Everything is cyclical,” Scheuneman said. “If you start counting these vo-tech students differently or if you include everyone without a 10% factor, I think our schools go back to that 6A level. This is something the Board of Directors (PIAA) said will be discussed at the state level for the next classification cycle (in 2024-25).

Chris Harlan is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .