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PIAA with WPIAL following behind contributing to decline of high school football in Alle-Kiski

PittMiamiRivalry

PittMiamiRivalry

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Aug 30, 2017
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Division changes just about every year. No regard for rivalries or if schools which traditionally played division games prefer to stay where they were. Every year my high school plays new opponents. And, yes, there are frequent blowouts. I realize the population has shrunk. You won't get 6000 fans to cram a stadium for a Class A (went from A to AA and now guessing that's any where from 4A - 2A these days) as used to happen when traditional rivals faced off in season finale.

Yes, there have been mergers but the WPIAL and the PIAA are run by bureaucrats who have no sense of tradition and no regard for fans.
 
Any examples of that? The one I can think of that's near me is Valley used to play Highlands every year in the Battle of the Bridge and they no longer play each other in football.
 
cbpitt2 said:
Any examples of that? The one I can think of that's near me is Valley used to play Highlands every year in the Battle of the Bridge and they no longer play each other in football.
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North Hills-North Allegheny, although may be pushing the boundaries of alle-kiski
 
paulbl99 said:
Typical gubimint cluster f

Let’s give them more power and money
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PIAA is a non government, private non profit corporation. It's like the NCAA. You have to opt to join it. Public schools in Philly chose not to join it at all until something like 2002.
 
Canevin/Seton LaSalle

USC/ MT Lebo. They played this year and next but the past 2 years they didn't.
 
Yeah but it is more than that in the AK Valley. We must have bad genes. Name the last decent Division 1 big time prospect from here? As I said in another thread, you can merge Highlands, Freeport, Burrell, Valley, Deer Lakes and say Kiski, which would be a HUGE district, and all it would be would be another Norwin or Hempfield. It wouldn't be a good 6A team.
 
recruitsreadtheseboards said:
Yeah but it is more than that in the AK Valley. We must have bad genes. Name the last decent Division 1 big time prospect from here? As I said in another thread, you can merge Highlands, Freeport, Burrell, Valley, Deer Lakes and say Kiski, which would be a HUGE district, and all it would be would be another Norwin or Hempfield. It wouldn't be a good 6A team.
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Totally true. I think you have to go all the way back to Jeff Christy of Freeport, or Tommy Brown of Burrell who both wound up at the University of Pittsburgh and made some money in the NFL as well.
 
Greg Meisner from Valley had a 10-year NFL career.

Benji Pryor was from Valley, decent Pitt TE. I don't recall him in the NFL.
 
recruitsreadtheseboards said:
Yeah but it is more than that in the AK Valley. We must have bad genes. Name the last decent Division 1 big time prospect from here? As I said in another thread, you can merge Highlands, Freeport, Burrell, Valley, Deer Lakes and say Kiski, which would be a HUGE district, and all it would be would be another Norwin or Hempfield. It wouldn't be a good 6A team.
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Valley used to always have a lot of talent in basketball and football, and then they fell off a cliff.
 
Lancer76 said:
I think he played some with the Bengals
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But I mean, if you have to go back, all the way back to Pryor and Meisner, who played for Pitt in the 70's, think about that? You guys are forgetting Gur Freroette played at Ford City, but again he wasn't even a big time recruit going to Tulsa. Like I said, maybe the last really good college player was McKillop. Pat McAfee was a punter, from WVU and Plum. But it is pretty bad this region has been fairly bad in football since probably the 80's.

Back when there were traditional classifications, Freeport and Burrell would do okay in their class, Highlands would do okay in its class, Knoch sometimes, but rarely would they be elites.

There is something about this area. It actually isn't as poor as some of the valleys like down the Mon Valley or Beaver Valley, so while the AK Valley has grayed and lost population, not like those areas. It just doesn't produce athletes.
 
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You guys are forgetting Tre Tipton. But, point taken. Valley, Highlands, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Apollo-Ridge Should all be in a conference playing one another.
 
recruitsreadtheseboards said:
Tre Tipton hasn't exactly starred in college, let alone NFL.
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Yeah but when I was reading this thread he was who immediately came to my mind as well because, unlike all the other names mentioned who are all from a good number of years back, Tipton is actually a current power 5 player. How many others are there currently from the area/schools you are talking about. I’m from Dynamo country in the same area, definitely none from there.
 
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NCanton Panther said:
Yeah but when I was reading this thread he was who immediately came to my mind as well because, unlike all the other names mentioned who are all from a good number of years back, Tipton is actually a current power 5 player. How many others are there currently from the area/schools you are talking about. I’m from Dynamo country in the same area, definitely none from there.
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Thimons is at WVU and isn't Bowers still at PSU?
 
recruitsreadtheseboards said:
Yeah but again, are they really making impacts?
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Don't follow PSU so can't comment on Bowers, but hew is at an age that he should be now.

Thimons is still young so next year he should be having an impact. As much as we expect prospects to be stars from day 1, the majority still need time and seasoning, only the absolute studs standout young.
 
Mikefln said:
Don't follow PSU so can't comment on Bowers, but hew is at an age that he should be now.

Thimons is still young so next year he should be having an impact. As much as we expect prospects to be stars from day 1, the majority still need time and seasoning, only the absolute studs standout young.
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Bowers was hurt, then got recruited over.
Thimmons is the starting FB for WVU. Not sure about special teams.
Of course FB in that offense isn't a particularly important position.
 
FreeportPanther said:
Bowers was hurt, then got recruited over.
Thimmons is the starting FB for WVU. Not sure about special teams.
Of course FB in that offense isn't a particularly important position.
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Yeah, I was going to say, Logan is a FB in an offense that probably uses a FB only 10% of the time.
 
recruitsreadtheseboards said:
But I mean, if you have to go back, all the way back to Pryor and Meisner, who played for Pitt in the 70's, think about that? You guys are forgetting Gur Freroette played at Ford City, but again he wasn't even a big time recruit going to Tulsa. Like I said, maybe the last really good college player was McKillop. Pat McAfee was a punter, from WVU and Plum. But it is pretty bad this region has been fairly bad in football since probably the 80's.

Back when there were traditional classifications, Freeport and Burrell would do okay in their class, Highlands would do okay in its class, Knoch sometimes, but rarely would they be elites.

There is something about this area. It actually isn't as poor as some of the valleys like down the Mon Valley or Beaver Valley, so while the AK Valley has grayed and lost population, not like those areas. It just doesn't produce athletes.
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I disagree with your last paragraph. I won’t speak to the Mon Valley, but Beaver Valley and the AK Valley are similar in many ways.
 
DiehardPanther said:
The Midland and Monica plants in Beaver County are still operating.
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Shells of what they once were.
Seriously, J&L Aliquippa, American Bridge, Most of Crucible plant, all the Babcock and Wilcox plants, the zinc smelter, and many more I can't remember, all gone.........10's of thousands of good paying union manufacturing/steel jobs.......poof! Virtually nothing to take their place.

Much worse than what happened in AK valley, because there was so much more in the Beaver Valley to begin with.
 
Comparing the fortunes of the Beaver, Mon, and Allegheny Valley is mostly variations of the same story. None had the eds and meds base Pittsburgh the city had to survive de-industrialization. Even the plants that remained open don't require that many workers anymore thanks to robotics. If J&L survived in Aliquippa, it'd probably have 500 workers today, not 10,000.
 
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DiehardPanther said:
The ones that are still in operation.
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Midland plant is operated by ATI and employes a couple of hundred.
Not sure what mill in Monaca you're talking about.
Some "mini" mills operating up there, several hundred employees max apiece.

ATI here in the Valley, guessing employes about 4,000 or so at its local locations.
 
Valley put out some Division-I basketball players over the years: B.B. Flenory, Pipkins, Pryor, Billy Varner. Burrell's Tom Myers played for Duquesne.

Har-Brack (which is smaller (pre-merger) and became Highlands), had Dick and Ed Modzelewski and Cookie Gilchrist all do well in college and spent time in the pros. For those not familiar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Modzelewski - Outland Trophy winner, 2-time All-American, long NFL career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Modzelewski - Sugar Bowl MVP, #6th pick overall NFL draft to the Steelers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_Gilchrist - didn't go to college but went to the CFL first, then Buffalo Bills Ring of Fame, AFL MVP, first 1,000-yard rusher in AFL history.

Anyway, as far as Highlands goes, established I guess in the late '60s?, I can't think of one player that made an impact in college division-I football or basketball led alone the NFL. Not one. Anyone?
 
cbpitt2 said:
Valley put out some Division-I basketball players over the years: B.B. Flenory, Pipkins, Pryor, Billy Varner. Burrell's Tom Myers played for Duquesne.

Har-Brack (which is smaller (pre-merger) and became Highlands), had Dick and Ed Modzelewski and Cookie Gilchrist all do well in college and spent time in the pros. For those not familiar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Modzelewski - Outland Trophy winner, 2-time All-American, long NFL career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Modzelewski - Sugar Bowl MVP, #6th pick overall NFL draft to the Steelers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_Gilchrist - didn't go to college but went to the CFL first, then Buffalo Bills Ring of Fame, AFL MVP, first 1,000-yard rusher in AFL history.

Anyway, as far as Highlands goes, established I guess in the late '60s?, I can't think of one player that made an impact in college division-I football or basketball led alone the NFL. Not one. Anyone?
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You are really talking many many years ago now. I remember going across the river and playing against B.B. Flenory back in grade school.
 
NCanton Panther said:
He might have scored more!!
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Don't feel bad. I can recount a tale of an encounter I had during a high school game with a guy you'd recognize as having had a lengthy NFL playing (and brief coaching) career. (We were both playing for schools that no longer exist.) Lets just say that the Vance McDonald stiffarm against Tampa Bay brought back an unpleasant memory . . .
 
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