Beginning in the 2016-17 season, the state will move from four to six classifications after the PIAA Board of Directors voted 26-4 Wednesday in favor of expansion, District 11 chairman and Whitehall AD Bob Hartman confirmed. The board also voted to expand to six classes in boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball. Field hockey is going to 3. It’s been that way since at least 1986.
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For Bret Altimore, head coach of the Dover girls’ soccer team, he could hardly contain his excitement over the news of soccer going from three to four classes. Other options included six classifications with a Super Class for schools with an enrollment of 700 or more, and a Super Class with schools with enrollment of 800 or more. Those sports, in the WPIAL, will indeed be different next year. “Until I see the breakdown, I can’t comment any further”.
“I think basically, the leagues can mirror what they are doing now”, said Ognosky, who has worked closely on scheduling in the past. “To add classifications like that is a big undertaking, but yet, we’re catching up with other states now”.
This motion passed by a count of 23-7, although a few board members, including Kennedy, voiced concerns about voting on expanding other sports without talking to the schools they represent. “It’s been a great day, in my mind, for Pennsylvania sports”. District 12 has 19 AAAA schools, 24 AAA and AA schools, and 16 Class A schools. One-game, loser-go-home playoffs in baseball are for high schools. Being from the old guard when we had one and two classifications in the sports, when you won a district title you had to beat a fair number of teams. “The biggest difference is between Class A to Class AAAA where there is a little bit of depth”.
York High boys’ basketball coach Troy Sowers knew that class expansion in other sports had been kicked around, but not heavily discussed, like football. “In basketball and football the more talented team is going to win the majority of the time”. This season, the PIAA will crown its four state football champions the weekend of December. 18-19. “You can have a kid with a curve, a changeup, and somebody that can move the ball around”.
“I think it is just watering down the championships”, Holmes said.
“If they were trying to level the playing field, they should have addressed the mega-school issue and the private-school issue”. Not just on the state level, but the local level as well. “Possibly a AAAA I would think”. “I think most people had a philosophical agreement with the increase, and the D-10 membership wanted me to vote in favor of it, so I did”. “It was very well received”.
The Wyoming Valley Conference schools which would be affected the most are the ones which form West Side Career and Technical Center – Dallas, Lake-Lehman, Northwest, Wyoming Area and Wyoming Valley West.
In terms of enrollment, it was hardly an even playing field: North Penn has the second-highest female enrollment (1,686) in Pennsylvania.
Class 5A (410-607): Williamsport (605), Wallenpaupack (476), Abington Heights (435), Pittston Area (411).
“It gives us a better shot at equal teams”. I think that’s neat.
Softball now competes in four classifications.
Lombardi also stated after the meeting that the PIAA already has approached championship sites about what they can do if sports expanded.
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“Wow, six? That’s big news”, said Phoenixville coach Eric Burnett, whose school is one of the smallest in the current AAAA classification. They were dominated by Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta, who since mid-July has been on the kind of off-the-charts roll that would make Cy Young jealous, but that doesn’t make the loss any easier to accept.
