On Tuesday, the PIAA announced the enrollment and reclassification list for the 2022 high school football season. Several WPIAL high schools were affected as many moved down a classification while a select few moved up to a higher classification for the upcoming season.
The WPIAL Class-6A classification has once again shrunk in size as Baldwin, Hempfield, and Norwin all move down to Class-5A leaving Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, Mt. Lebanon, North Allegheny, and Seneca Valley as the only schools currently competing in the highest classification.
As the three teams from 6A move down to the 5A classification, West Allegheny, Connellsville, Latrobe, Woodland Hills, and Kiski Area all move down to Class-4A. Woodland Hills will move down two classifications to Class-3A.
Going the other way, Plum and Thomas Jefferson both move up to Class-5A and Aliquippa will also join those schools due to the competition formula set by the PIAA which is currently being appealed by the district.
In Class-4A, three teams will be moving into the classification as North Catholic, and Ambridge move due to enrollment, while Central Valley who just won back-to-back 3A state titles will move up due to the competition formula. Five other Class-4A schools will make the move down to Class-3A which include Beaver, Greensburg Salem, Knoch, Belle Vernon, and West Mifflin.
Class-2A, WPIAL’s largest classification will lose a total of nine schools in the realignment as Shady Side Academy moves to Class-3A while eight schools will move down to Class-1A. Imani Christian will be the only school from Class-A to move up to Class-2A.Â
Teams can still choose to play up in classification on a voluntary basis. Those schools will be finalized at a later date.
From the way too outside-the-box and make too much sense perspective, if Aliquippa ends up playing 5A, they’ll need to have Hopewell’s kids added to their team. By doing this, 1. Aliquippa will have enough players to practice and 2. The Hopewell kids will get the experience of being on a competitive/ likely winning team. IMHO, Aliquippa pulled off a poor man’s Hoosiers by winning the 4A state title. The last 5 games must’ve taken a toll on a team with such little depth. If they move up to 5A, nearly every game- with the exception of the occasional lightweight-… Read more »
Aliquippa with one of the smallest enrollment is certainly not being treated fairly by the PIAA.
Southern Columbia is in the state finals every stinking year and they’re allowed to just keep on trucking over the competition. Hmmmm, what’s the glaring difference between them and Aliquippa??? Don’t make me say it.
Good observation. Grades 9-12, Southern Columbia has 437 students and Aliquippa has 405. Yet, despite winning 5 consecutive state titles, Southern Columbia gets to play 2A football while Aliquippa is being asked to play 5A football.
When it comes to Aliquippa, the PIAA is the 1980s NCAA, where- paraphrasing the late UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian- the PIAA is so bothered by Southern Columbia’s continuous winning that they made Aliquippa move up another class.