What are some of the oldest and best rivalries in the WPIAL?
- Thread starter cbpitt2
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South Union and North Union school districts were independent until they merged in 1965 to become Laurel Highlands.
I feel like this is another one of those times where SMF spews inaccurate nonsense as gospel.
Terry, correct me if I am wrong, but LH and UT have never been affiliated. As you said, LH is a combo of North and South Union Townships and Uniontown is the city plus Menallen, Franklin, Wharton, and Henry Clay Townships plus Ohiopyle and Markleysburg.
Ok, wow, I always thought LH split off from Uniontown. So, you are saying there were 2 school districts, South Union and North Union who merged to form LH? Interesting. If you look at the school district map though, its so out of whack. Uniontown "city" is a small speck inside of the LH school district even though its part of USD, kinda like West Berlin being a part of West Germany but inside East Germany. Then you have another section of USD, completely completely cut off from the rest of USD. It has to he most "out of whack" school district geographically.
If it were up to me, I'd just have 2 public high schools in Fayette County: Connellsville (too far east) and Fayette County (Frazier, Uniontown, LH, Brownsville, AG). Have maybe 2 middle schools and several elementary schools. Build a really nice HS campus and sports facilities somewhere.
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Correct on the North Union/South Union merger. anyone living outside of the city of Uniontown has to go through LH’s district to get to the high school. Uniontown has a pretty substantial athletic history for sure. Connellsville has a former Heisman winner (Johnny Lujack) and Olympic gold medalist (Johnny Woodruff) in our history. We still have the tree that Woodruff received in those Olympics in the north end zone of our stadium.
Every time I take that 68 down to Maryland, I cant believe how far those kids have to go to get to high school. The Maryland border to Uniontown HS is like 45 minutes in a car with no traffic.
North Braddock Scott High vs Braddock High Tigers at Scott High Stadium was one of the best. The stadium was a concrete bowl U-shaped stadium. Both teams used it as their home field. Braddock High used to draw about 10,000 fans when they went on their 66 game winning streak with Coach Chuck Klausing.
I remember Snow Days off from school in the early Seventies where it didn't snow around Uniontown but did up in the mountains.
If I recall correctly, some kids were bused over 24 miles from the Maryland border to Uniontown.
Connellsville is in a similar situation. Our district goes almost to 7 Springs.
Correction----LH was never part of uniontown school district ---LH was formed in the mid 1960's via the merger of North Union and South Union , neithe rof which was part of Uniontown school district.
Uniontown- LH remains an intense basketball rivalry and over the past 50 yrs probably one of the closest . Uniontown owns roughly a plus 16 on LH but had those districts merged , as many thought they should have, they still would have only been the size of a Mt Lebo or Penn Hills and given the combined talent they would have won multiple state titles in hoops
I’m talking about Scott’s back up QB at BV. He ended up playing at Waynesburg. Good guy, still lives in the Valley and owns a business. I assume you went to Ringgold? That basketball game was the craziest HS game I’ve been to.
If I remember correctly, it was a very close game and BV pulled it out late?
The football game that season was another story. I think Scott Zolak had a big game and Ringgold won.
My memory is starting to fade a bit, so I could have things mixed up.
The state of PA had huge school district mergers in the 1960s. I assume the creation of Laurel Highlands was one of those. The state--at least the western part of the state--is probably due for another round of mergers. But I doubt the current political climate will allow it even though it's likely in our kids' best interests.
There are plenty of out-of-whack school districts, geographically, in PA that came out of those 60s mergers.
LH usually sucks at basketball. Were only good the last 2 years due to Gallagher and DeShields. I watched some of the LH/UHS games last year on the internet. Great games. One went to double or triple OT.
Not to show my age, but Avalon-Bellevue was a great rivalry, as was North Catholic/Central Catholic. Interestingly, when North was a big school, they often dominated Central. Central really didn't become today's Central until North shrunk away, which also helped Central's pool grow.
(Re)reading the book . Striking Grid iron . That Braddock team pulled the whole town together in 58' during the steel mill strike ...
Very good read . Highly recommended .
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I went to BV and I think I know who you mean, now (Jim?). Like you, my memory is fading. He was a good QB. I was thinking about the guy the year after who should have started but got hurt. We would have been so much better if not for that injury.
And yeah, the basketball game was a mess. Both were. I know the way Scotty was treated at BV after the transfer caused a lot of bad blood but he and his dad said and did a lot of things that warranted it. I won't go into all of the particulars but he would have still gone to MD if he stayed. His dad hired a coach with the understanding that Scotty would be showcased for scouts. Ringgold's old coach was newly hired at BV and sure as hell wasn't going to do that. But yeah, it didn't matter.
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pittdan77
Athletic Director
Uniontown had the typical drainage hump in the middle of their field but it was bigger than anywhere else. You almost couldn't see the opposing sideline if you were sitting on the bench.
played on uniontown's field in 92 or 93, remember this field being ridiculously bad even then. not quite as bad as not seeing the other sideline but pretty close. you'd be running down hill then hit a big indent or crater in the ground and then be running up hill again.
In 1964/. The ‘65 graduating class we beat Braddock 28-0. Best game of my life.
It may be a good place to re-tell this story.
Its one i have told to my out of town friends countless times.
His 800 meter run in those Olympics was crazy. He can to almost a complete stop so he could take the lead and go on to win.
The WPIAL toyed around with locally-based cross-classification conferences during the last cycle. Other states do this and have formulas to setup the playoffs. IMO, this would've been ideal because you get local rivals playing and more of a competitive balance. It was a win-win.
The problem was, the schools didn't want it. They put it to a vote of the schools, sections with teams from multiple classes or sections with all teams from the same class, and all teams from the same class was the clear winner.
There was once a Noth Union and South Union highschools that played each other. They were separate. Uniontown was separate and included some of the mountain TWP that you mentioned. Laurel High School was built off of Baily Ave. to combine North and South TWP in the 60s. That is when the rivalry began between Uniontown and LH. I lived those years in Uniontown. In fact, in 70s, Pitt's GSPIA did a study of Fayette County and recommended that LH and U'town combine their schools systems and the reason given that it could not be done locally was because that would never work because of the sports rivalry - that was a stupid looking back.
Probably because the schools didnt want too much intermixing. It should be only for the worst teams. The WPIAL should allow you to volunteer to play 2 classes down but also be ineligible for the playoffs. It wouldn't hurt anybody if Butler played 4A vs Highlands, Freeport, Deer Lakes, etc.
Most of these schools are non competitive regardless if they are in the WPIAL or playing an independent schedule.
Take 6A Butler for instance. They have been playing an independent schedule for 4 years. In none of those years did they have a winning record. In fact, they finished 2-8 this year…they were absolutely non competitive against any team that had a pulse.
Going independent is not the answer. These teams/schools that are doing this are running from the issues as opposed to fixing them.
Take 6A Butler for instance. They have been playing an independent schedule for 4 years. In none of those years did they have a winning record. In fact, they finished 2-8 this year…they were absolutely non competitive against any team that had a pulse.
Going independent is not the answer. These teams/schools that are doing this are running from the issues as opposed to fixing them.
New Castle vs Butler Lindy Lauro vs Art Bernardi, of the 70’s and 80’s when in those new castle was winningest high school football team in America, not so good in the 90’s to this day, New Castle has now become a basketball power
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But the flip side is that Butler’s participation has increased since they aren’t getting beat 60-0 every week. Same thing happened here in Connellsville with a coaching change and a drop to 4A. Now they are losing a strong senior class and being bumped to 5A. I fully support the independent route.
I disagree that going independent is not the answer. The PIAA and WPIAL have no interest in competitive balance. While I agree these schools can make some improvements, a football coach or school board can’t change demographics. Connellsville has bigger issues than football. Those need improved first. I’m sure Uniontown, AG, Brownsville and Butler are in the same boat. Nothing is gained by winning or losing by 60 every week.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Not just other states. District 5 and 6 do this because it made more sense. There are two big conferences and one small one that include schools from both districts. Their footprints are huge but they break things into divisions that make some sense and cut down on travel, to a degree. Everything is spread out so long trips are still unavoidable. They have their conference championships and then everyone settles into their districts for playoffs using a points formula. It works fairly well.
I most certainly did. I didn’t say they were going there, but I can 100% say that they contacted Geibel. They didn’t contact GCC due to the transportation issues.
And before you say Giebel doesn’t have a team, they co-op with Southmoreland.
A lot of these school districts, especially near the city. I never understood why they combined some of their schools. I never understood why Woodland Hills exist let alone why you’d combine some of these areas together. Maybe someone can give me the back story because I always wondered why some of these areas were so lopsided in their district lines ( like North Allegheny, Pine Richland etc ) ……someone fill me in lol
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