The craziest thing about all of this to me is, why do the PIAA board remove "Safety" from the appeal criteria. Shouldn't player safety always be the main concern when it comes to athletics. It seems PIAA is more concerned about certain teams winning.
OT: Quips to 5A
- Thread starter pittdan77
- Start date
Tell them to do the numbers per sport. Aliquippa doesn't offer many sports. Listen, the rule is terrible but Aliquippa is going to win 5A.
I hope after these 2 years, they drop down to 2A and crush Southern Columbia. The PIAA would HATE to see SC lose.
Also, how is Westinghouse dropping down to 1A? I mean I guess their enrollment is that low but how? It doesnt seem like their area of Pittsburgh has really had that big of a population decline. They used to be 3A in a 4A class. Now 1A out of 6. For a section of Pittsburgh? Must be a lot of charter schools. But which ones?
Probably. But I am more concerned about the safety and mental well being of the kids on the team. Everybody keeps saying "oh well they'll still win", as if that is all that matters. Them kids are already at a significant disadvantage in life, and it seems most outside of Aliquippa either does not understand that or has no empathy for the have nots...simply because "well they are still winning".
I'm not concerned about safety. Those kids play 2 ways at a lower level because they can. Their coach is going to have to develop more guys so instead of having a nucleus of 15 or so guys who play every down, they are going to need 20-25. Maybe this means they lose a few games because lesser athletes have to play now. Also, not worried about their mental well being. Its a great football program and those kids should thrive on an Us vs World mentality.
Imagine the 1st time those Aliquippa kids drive through that Bethel Park traffic? They'll have to leave at about 2PM
It won't let me post the graphic but link above shows the vast disparity between potential section opps.
Also, not sure why they wouldn't have Aliquippa play in the North instead of the South. I posted this a few weeks ago. Should be:
North
Aliquippa
PR
NH
Shaler
FC
Armstrong
Kiski
South
Moon
SF
USC
BP
Peters
Baldwin
East
PH
Gateway
Plum
FR
Penn-Trafford
Latrobe
Weird that Moon is the only 5A school in the Pittsburgh region that I would consider to be a "western" suburb of the city. You probably have to put the Quips wherever you put Moon and South Fayette (which is kind of west, although I consider part of the south suburbs).
5A teams have a lot more than a few kids playing both ways. The problem the Quips are going to run into is they won't be more talented than every team they face in 5A. They won't win 5A.
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Then they should look at the administration and staff that continues to ignore the PIAA rules, while crying injustice. The only injustice was created by their football administration being unable to process what the PIAA rules are, or just completely ignoring them.
Yeah I guess the coach should tell kids that transfer in they can't play football lol. "Sorry, you guys can't play because the PIAA might move us up". That sounds so foolish. The purpose of the rule was to stop teams from recruiting, so kids basically transferring with an athletic intent. Most players transferring to Quip are transferring because they don't have a choice (mom got evicted, grandma died, etc).
And the PIAA just changed the rules purposely excluding player safety as a reason a team should not be forced up because Aliquippa won the last appeal based on that. You wouldn't know what injustice is because I highly doubt you have ever experienced it.
Do you know why these kids transferred? The administration needs to understand implications. You either comply or deal with the result. Their argument was lame, so they turned it into an injustice argument. They should look in the mirror.
I do know nobody with a stable family structure and financial standing is letting their kid transfer to Aliquippa for "athletic intent". My point is, all transfers are not the same. The PIAA board and you are clearly failing to understand that.
If there was any benefit to playing HS football for Aliquippa that outweighs academics then Henry and Moon wouldn't have left. And Pitt alum/former NFL first round draft pick Jon Baldwin's son (whom is a top prospect) would transfer back to Aliquippa as well.
Yes. Most high schools have to cut basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. Nobody cuts football because even someone who is terrible can bring some value to practice. Aliquippa should absolutely "cut" every transfer beyond the 2 maximum. Does that suck for the kid? Yes. But what about all those baseball, basketball, etc players who are cut especially at the bigger schools? This is what the PIAA wants. I dont like the rule but if you want to play in the PIAA, you only get 2 transfers.
Jon Baldwin's son is a top prospect? Where does he go? He's obviously a PSU 🔐
lol naw, he lives in Arizona and doesn't graduate until 2027.
But PSU did offer before Pitt smh. He has IU, PSU, and Pitt offers at the moment.
Yea there's like no chance he goes anywhere but PSU. Franklin and Smith are straight trolling Duzz with this shit. They'll take any Pitt legacy regardless of quality (Gonzalez)
SIAP
Just read in PSN that the PIAA considers 23 out of the 40 man roster for the Quips transferred in. How is that possible?
Just read in PSN that the PIAA considers 23 out of the 40 man roster for the Quips transferred in. How is that possible?
has to be some kind of charter or magnet school issues. the piaa included the psu running back as a transfer and the kid has been playing rec football in aliquippa since he was a little kid..
these magnet schools or whatever you call them are causing issues with what is and what is not a transfer.
no way is 1/2 their roster what you and i consider a transfer. like a kid living in ambridge or center twp and he's a good football player at 16 so he decided to do his senior year at aliquippa and moved in with his aunt who has a rental appt in aliquippa/
i feel like everyone who is involved in this battle, the piaa and aliquippa, pretty much everyone on both sides, are all complete freakin idiots.
it's amateur hour to the 10th degree from the start of this..
Yea, they gave the PIAA bad info. Most of those 23 had been at Aliquippa since Kindergarten. And I mean, that's just common sense, isnt it? 23 of their 40 players didnt just transfer there the last couple years.
For sure. Ridiculously stupid rule. Ridiculously stupid challenge to the rule. Ridiculously stupid decision to uphold the rule. Ridiculously stupid to allow 3 extra transfers on the team, especially if its true they made no difference.
How many schools have two D1 prospects to lose?!
I agree that there has to be a better way. Not sure what it is but that doesn't mean it can't be explored.
I can't say for certain but it would be interesting to see how many kids play both ways at most 5A schools. That would be a legitimate argument to make if it's true but I haven't heard anyone else make it.
Sounds like schools that can't win want to punish schools that do! The problem is that the larger schools have many more boys to choose from and have larger teams so they go 2-3 deep at some positions. The Quips do not have that luxury!
I think you're mixing arguments. Transfers for athletic intent are still against the rules and are vetted through a different process. The reason this rule exists is because schools/players were using loopholes to sidestep the rule. This financial hardship argument was one of them. This was the solution they came up with.
Look, it's fun to play with a winner and it's fun to win. A lot of athletes peak in HS so they choose to seek out a way to play for a winner. I'm certain there is an element of, "if your life is going to be generally difficult, why not do it with a winner?" I don't have a problem with that at all but if they're loading up and just pounding schools at ever step of the way, finding more competition isn't exactly a bad thing.
Personally, I think the success formula should be adding points after you go a certain distance into the state playoffs every year. Especially if you're just winning season after season.
If they have 25 kids that had questions about their transfer status at the start of the process, their pool of talent is a bit larger than what it might appear.
True but also I doubt Aliquippa has any fall sports besides football. The bigger schools lose good athletes to soccer and cross country in the fall and also fall baseball with their Daddy Ball teams. So while there are more kids to choose from, they dont always get all the best athletes. Case in point: in my son's grade, the best 2 athletes play soccer and not football.
Does anyone know more about this 20+ transfer number that keeps getting thrown around? Like did a bunch of kids enroll in a cyber school during COVID shutdowns without actually moving in or out of the district, or something like that?
That was the original number but it changed to five. I don't really know the circumstances behind that change or what made that number higher but it would seem there is at least some number of kids who moved into the district at some point that was greater than five. They just didn't meet the definition for the application of the rule.
No. It wasnt charter or cyber kids. It was simply an error. The PIAA uses some lists they get from the school but some kids were not on the one but on the other.....like the PSU RB who has been there since Kindergarten. Just an error like WH counting grades 9-12 instead of 9-11
For a school district that takes football so seriously (the results speak for themselves), you would think that the admins at Aliquippa would have been paying extra attention to filling out that list for the PIAA. Very strange.
