Woodland Hills down to 3A enrollment?

[Sean Miller Fan]

But opting to remain in 5A.

Lots of interesting changes.

- 6A down to 5 teams with Norwin and Hempfield moving down. The WPIAL is considering not having a 6A conference and grouping those teams with the 5A teams but having the 6A teams having their own playoff.

- 1A goes from 24 to 30

- Belle Vernon and Central Valley swap. BV to 3A. CV to 4A

- Serra Catholic has 1A enrollment but will remain in 2A.

WPIAL football classification realignment: Belle Vernon, Central Valley headline list of major changes

Belle Vernon is dropping down to Class 3A for the upcoming two-year cycle after reaching the WPIAL Class 4A title game in 2021.

www.post-gazette.com

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

6A teams grouping with 5A teams for scheduling but having their own playoffs. Man, i dont even know what that means..

but yeah, it's a mess. having a 1/2 dozen 6A teams doesnt seem worth it..

 

[SteelCityChamps]

I have moved out of state, so don't keep up as much. I don't remember all these changes when it was A to AAAA, but I guess the reclassification to 6A was a PIAA move.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

I have moved out of state, so don't keep up as much. I don't remember all these changes when it was A to AAAA, but I guess the reclassification to 6A was a PIAA move.

i played for a school in mid 90's in south hills and my conference was, USC, lebo, baldwin, Ringgold, bethel, uniontown, albert gallatin..

25 years later, i dont even know if albert gallatin exists, uniontown is 3a i think, ringgold is 3a.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

6A teams grouping with 5A teams for scheduling but having their own playoffs. Man, i dont even know what that means..

but yeah, it's a mess. having a 1/2 dozen 6A teams doesnt seem worth it..

Until the parochial people of WPA get smart and start joining municipalities together to be more financially efficient this will be the trend!

 

[Fk_Pitt]

But opting to remain in 5A.

Lots of interesting changes.

- 6A down to 5 teams with Norwin and Hempfield moving down. The WPIAL is considering not having a 6A conference and grouping those teams with the 5A teams but having the 6A teams having their own playoff.

- 1A goes from 24 to 30

- Belle Vernon and Central Valley swap. BV to 3A. CV to 4A

- Serra Catholic has 1A enrollment but will remain in 2A.

WPIAL football classification realignment: Belle Vernon, Central Valley headline list of major changes

Belle Vernon is dropping down to Class 3A for the upcoming two-year cycle after reaching the WPIAL Class 4A title game in 2021.

www.post-gazette.com

Is there a better example of the PIAA could give a crap less about WPIAL 7?

 

[PatMac59]

i played for a school in mid 90's in south hills and my conference was, USC, lebo, baldwin, Ringgold, bethel, uniontown, albert gallatin..

25 years later, i dont even know if albert gallatin exists, uniontown is 3a i think, ringgold is 3a.

Albert Gallatin mainly plays against schools from West Virginia and Maryland these days, from what I’ve read. I don’t blame them, either. They were in my high school’s conference when I played and had to travel long distances for every away game to get just obliterated.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Too many conferences. Too many trophies. Are people going to die if, goodness forbid, Baldwin and Mt. Lebanon have to play with Bethel Park and Upper Saint Clair? Or if, gasp, Norwin and Hempfield would have to be with Gateway, Franklin Regional, and Penn T-t-t-trafford?

This should be way more geographically-based. You only need three or four classifications. Four at the most, as it once was.

 

[Panther Holla]

Put them all together in an all-star team. Aliquippa will kick their asses.

 

[Hailpitt]

By the next WPIAL cycle NA will be the only 6 A team

 

[9nationalchampionships]

By the next WPIAL cycle NA will be the only 6 A team

Seneca Valley

 

[Pitt_Boss]

By the next WPIAL cycle NA will be the only 6 A team

and Aliquippa

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Albert Gallatin mainly plays against schools from West Virginia and Maryland these days, from what I’ve read. I don’t blame them, either. They were in my high school’s conference when I played and had to travel long distances for every away game to get just obliterated.

AG, Uniontown, and Brownsville have gone independent. I have no idea how Brownsville can go from playing for a WPIAL Championship in 3A (in a 4A system) 20 years ago to not even being competitive in 2A (in a 6A system). They went from hanging with Tyler Palko and West A at TRS to not being able to get a 1st Down against like Mapletown or someone like that.

 

[HOF Coach]

i played for a school in mid 90's in south hills and my conference was, USC, lebo, baldwin, Ringgold, bethel, uniontown, albert gallatin..

25 years later, i dont even know if albert gallatin exists, uniontown is 3a i think, ringgold is 3a.

What position did you play?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

6A teams grouping with 5A teams for scheduling but having their own playoffs. Man, i dont even know what that means..

but yeah, it's a mess. having a 1/2 dozen 6A teams doesnt seem worth it..

It means the 6A teams will be placed into 5A conferences and at the end of the season, the 6A teams will be "pulled out" for their own playoff. And that's actually smart and sometimes we said should happen for all classes.

Like take 3A and 4A for example, why not just combine them and make geographic based conferences and then pull the top 12 from each for separate playoffs. They used to do this in basketball actually, not sure if they still do.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

What position did you play?

DB - wr

 

[pittdan77]

Too many conferences. Too many trophies. Are people going to die if, goodness forbid, Baldwin and Mt. Lebanon have to play with Bethel Park and Upper Saint Clair? Or if, gasp, Norwin and Hempfield would have to be with Gateway, Franklin Regional, and Penn T-t-t-trafford?

This should be way more geographically-based. You only need three or four classifications. Four at the most, as it once was.

It's a money grab by the PIAA. Every state that has increased the number of classifications have seen revenue go up because there are more playoff games. Has nothing to do with giving out trophies.

 

[pittdan77]

Is there a better example of the PIAA could give a crap less about WPIAL 7?

Not sure why they should. The WPIAL has thumbed their nose at the rest of the state.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

It's a money grab by the PIAA. Every state that has increased the number of classifications have seen revenue go up because there are more playoff games. Has nothing to do with giving out trophies.

I don't think that's it. I think it comes down to their views on fairness. Instead of 150 teams competing for 4 championships, they felt it was more fair to have 100 compete for 6 and its hard to argue with that.

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

I don't think that's it. I think it comes down to their views on fairness. Instead of 150 teams competing for 4 championships, they felt it was more fair to have 100 compete for 6 and its hard to argue with that.

They wanted to minimize the enrollment disparities within classes.. (Of course, that's contradicted by making an Aliquippa play up three classes.)

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

But opting to remain in 5A.

Lots of interesting changes.

- 6A down to 5 teams with Norwin and Hempfield moving down. The WPIAL is considering not having a 6A conference and grouping those teams with the 5A teams but having the 6A teams having their own playoff.

- 1A goes from 24 to 30

- Belle Vernon and Central Valley swap. BV to 3A. CV to 4A

- Serra Catholic has 1A enrollment but will remain in 2A.

WPIAL football classification realignment: Belle Vernon, Central Valley headline list of major changes

Belle Vernon is dropping down to Class 3A for the upcoming two-year cycle after reaching the WPIAL Class 4A title game in 2021.

www.post-gazette.com

It's funny, growing up and being in HS in the 80's, the Eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh were mostly the largest schools and power schools. Especially Penn Hills, McKeesport and Gateway. Out to Norwin and Hempfield and even Greensburg Salem. Kiski and Plum were big then. Next "big areas" were the immediate north and south High Schools. North Hills, Shaler, North Allegheny, Mt Lebanon, USC, Char Valley.

Now, so many of these schools are so much smaller, and the growth districts are the Pine Richland's, Mars' Seneca Valley's in the north and South Fayette, Peter's in the south and West A to the Southwest.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

It's a money grab by the PIAA. Every state that has increased the number of classifications have seen revenue go up because there are more playoff games. Has nothing to do with giving out trophies.

I don't think that's it. I think it comes down to their views on fairness. Instead of 150 teams competing for 4 championships, they felt it was more fair to have 100 compete for 6 and its hard to argue with that.

The reason we have 6 classes is mainly because the AD's and HC's want it. Whenever they poll the coaches for instance it's always a huge % that favor 6 classes.

I went to a 4A school in the mid 90's.. We played Reading High. We had about 400 boys from 9-11. Reading was over 2,000. Coaches and administrators don't want the old system.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

It's funny, growing up and being in HS in the 80's, the Eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh were mostly the largest schools and power schools. Especially Penn Hills, McKeesport and Gateway. Out to Norwin and Hempfield and even Greensburg Salem. Kiski and Plum were big then. Next "big areas" were the immediate north and south High Schools. North Hills, Shaler, North Allegheny, Mt Lebanon, USC, Char Valley.

Now, so many of these schools are so much smaller, and the growth districts are the Pine Richland's, Mars' Seneca Valley's in the north and South Fayette, Peter's in the south and West A to the Southwest.

Peters seems to be moving down in all sports but football but generally, yes, I agree. The enrollment declines in these schools are staggering. Look at schools like WH and Uniontown. Used to be 4A in a 4 class system, now 3A in a 6 class system. Other schools were 3A in a 4 class system 20 years ago are now 2A in a 2 class system.

 

[pittdan77]

The reason we have 6 classes is mainly because the AD's and HC's want it. Whenever they poll the coaches for instance it's always a huge % that favor 6 classes.

I went to a 4A school in the mid 90's.. We played Reading High. We had about 400 boys from 9-11. Reading was over 2,000. Coaches and administrators don't want the old system.

That was part of the reasoning. The disparities out east in some of the classifications were gigantic.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Peters seems to be moving down in all sports but football but generally, yes, I agree. The enrollment declines in these schools are staggering. Look at schools like WH and Uniontown. Used to be 4A in a 4 class system, now 3A in a 6 class system. Other schools were 3A in a 4 class system 20 years ago are now 2A in a 2 class system.

Yeah it's weird. Seeing schools like a Brownsville or Valley at a 2A and seeing Mars and South Fayette at 5A.

 

[pittdan77]

Yeah it's weird. Seeing schools like a Brownsville or Valley at a 2A and seeing Mars and South Fayette at 5A.

There was a time that Monesson was a good sized school. Just the way things go.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

Yeah it's weird. Seeing schools like a Brownsville or Valley at a 2A and seeing Mars and South Fayette at 5A.

im still shocked at West A and especially moon. Moon in mid 90's wasnt even on the radar and now they are a powerhouse in football at the 5a level. West A and imperial was basically a grouping of homes past Ikea and nothing else. then robinson grew and voila, we are now talking about west A and moon athletics..

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Yeah it's weird. Seeing schools like a Brownsville or Valley at a 2A and seeing Mars and South Fayette at 5A.

Brownsville still has the athletes to be good in 2A. The administration/parents are a mess there.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

im still shocked at West A and especially moon. Moon in mid 90's wasnt even on the radar and now they are a powerhouse in football at the 5a level. West A and imperial was basically a grouping of homes past Ikea and nothing else. then robinson grew and voila, we are now talking about west A and moon athletics..

Moon lost the state title to Allentown Central Catholic 10-0 in 1998.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

im still shocked at West A and especially moon. Moon in mid 90's wasnt even on the radar and now they are a powerhouse in football at the 5a level. West A and imperial was basically a grouping of homes past Ikea and nothing else. then robinson grew and voila, we are now talking about west A and moon athletics..

There’s still a lot of land out in Moon that’s prime for residential development.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Not sure why they should. The WPIAL has thumbed their nose at the rest of the state.

Yeah I get it. I just don’t know why the enrollment numbers/criteria are what they are…when they can manipulate the numbers in just a way so that you don’t have a situation when a class has only 5 schools. In some cases you can take an enrollment classification down 5-10 students and it would balance things out better. But I guess it then would throw things out of whack in the east. And honestly, I sometimes wonder if District 3 and District 1 are given priority.

 

[pittdan77]

Yeah I get it. I just don’t know why the enrollment numbers/criteria are what they are…when they can manipulate the numbers in just a way so that you don’t have a situation when a class has only 5 schools. In some cases you can take an enrollment classification down 5-10 students and it would balance things out better. But I guess it then would throw things out of whack in the east. And honestly, I sometimes wonder if District 3 and District 1 are given priority.

Fair enough. I think most of the bigger schools are out east. Not too many in Pittsburgh. Eastern politics have always held a lot of sway, too.

 

[Burgh15]

The WPIAL really needs to get these conferences geographically based. Here is a pretty good proposal for geographically-based conferences that would also be pretty competitive as well: https://steelcityblitz.com/2022-wpial-realignment-scenarios/

There's such a lack of rivalry games and long travel times has minimized crowds at these games. There's a good alternative solution right there for the WPIAL to consider and they won't because they assume enrollment equates to success in football.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

im still shocked at West A and especially moon. Moon in mid 90's wasnt even on the radar and now they are a powerhouse in football at the 5a level. West A and imperial was basically a grouping of homes past Ikea and nothing else. then robinson grew and voila, we are now talking about west A and moon athletics..

Moon? Moon has been a fairly decent sized school and programs in my lifetime. It is not like this was some cow school. I mean the airport has been located there for like a 100 years.

 

[NNFAN]

I understand them wanting to expand from 4 classes, but they didn't need six. Just bump it down to five classes and see how that works. Having four teams competing for the 6a WPIAL is silly. NA vs. PCC in the first round is BS when you have so many weaker schools elsewhere in the state advancing.

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

West A and imperial was basically a grouping of homes past Ikea and nothing else. then robinson grew and voila, we are now talking about west A and moon athletics..

Wouldn't growth in Robinson be reflected in Montour?

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

It's funny, growing up and being in HS in the 80's, the Eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh were mostly the largest schools and power schools. Especially Penn Hills, McKeesport and Gateway. Out to Norwin and Hempfield and even Greensburg Salem. Kiski and Plum were big then.

OK, so right now according to the new numbers my old district, Norwin, has a combined 1119 kids in the three grades, an average of 373 kids per class.

My senior year at Norwin we had one of the longest teachers strikes in state history and were one of the last straws to them passing the law that teachers strikes had to end in time for the school to get 180 days of instruction in before the end of the year. We didn't come close to 180 days, our first day of school wasn't until November that year. The upshot of that was that a lot of kids never came back to school, they either transferred to a private school or were old enough that they could drop out and a few actually started college early, so that I don't remember exactly how many we graduated, but it was well off what it could/should have been.

Anyway, at the end of my junior year my class alone had 807 kids in it. It was the largest class in school history. But that shows how big the decrease in class sizes is. We had 807 kids in one class. Now Norwin has an average of 373 kids per class, not even half as many, and yet it is still the 7th biggest school in the WPIAL.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Seems to be that there needs to be some sort of overall school restructuring.

 

[Saboteur II]

Wouldn't growth in Robinson be reflected in Montour?

No

 

[Conemaugh]

Until the parochial people of WPA get smart and start joining municipalities together to be more financially efficient this will be the trend!

As a resident of the east end in the Woodland Hills school district......... joining school districts is not what you think it is. If it were, i would see families with children in my neighborhood.