The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) released new enrollment numbers for high schools in the state on Tuesday, which will impact where WPIAL and City League teams play their football next season.
The numbers revealed where WPIAL teams will play football from 6A through 1A for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. This does not include the competitive-balance rule, which forces schools that accrue a certain number of points through postseason success and transfer students to reclassify over the next two-season period.
This is why Aliquippa, which has an enrollment of students for Class 2A plays at 4A because of their success on the field and some of the transfers they bring in. They even had to appeal to play down to 4A after the PIAA wanted them to play at 5A, which Aliquippa won.
Class 6A + 5A
Norwin and Hempfield moving up from Class 5A to 6A. Butler, who has played in District 10 since 2020, is moving back to the WPIAL. Since they are the third highest enrollment, they will likely play at 6A, but might also choose to stay independent. All of these schools have an enrollment of at least 620 kids through grades 9-11.
Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which has an enrollment of 546, would have to drop down to 5A. Rick Capretta, the school’s athletic director, confirmed to Chris Harlan of the Tribune-Review, that the Vikings will still play in 6A the next two seasons.
Woodland Hills, which the PIAA recorded having an enrollment of 638, is apparently a reporting error, according to Harlan. They should play in 5A, but it depends how the WPIAL and PIAA let them amend the numbers, which included charter, cyber and vo-tech students.
Albert Gallatin is the only team from 5A to move down to 4A, having an enrollment of 356, lower than the 424 students needed in 5A.
Class 4A
Connellsville, Latrobe, Kiski and Armstrong will make the move from 4A to 5A. Armstrong has an enrollment of 490, Connellsville has an enrollment of 555 and Latrobe has an enrollment of 476, all of which are higher than the cut off of 424.
Highlands, North Catholic and Central Valley go down to 3A, with enrollments of 291, 285 and 282, respectively. They missed out on the cutoff at 296.
Class 3A
Belle Vernon, Knoch and West Mifflin move up to 4A, with enrollments of 318, 299 and 296, respectively. Belle Vernon last played in 4A back in 2021, where they lost to Aliquippa in the WPIAL Championship Game. Knoch and West Mifflin both return to 4A as well, with both having records of 2-8 back in 2021.
Shady Side Academy, Brownsville, Seton LaSalle and South Allegheny move down to 2A, with enrollments of 200, 199, 197 and 196, respectively, lower than the cutoff at 217.
Class 2A
Derry, Yough, Burrell, Charleroi and McGuffey will move up to 3A, with enrollments of 270, 239 232, 222 and 221, respectively, higher than the 216 maximum.
Brentwood, Neshannock, Imani Christian, Serra Catholic go down to 1A, with enrollments of 139, 130, 120 and 78, respectively, lower than the 144 minimum.
Class 1A
Carlynton is the only school from 1A that has enough students to move into 2A with 165.
City League
The City League teams all play each other, despite differences in sizes of school enrollments. The teams will compete in different classifications for state playoffs. Westinghouse won the City League and is in the PIAA 2A playoffs, but runners-up USO played in the 4A playoffs, due to differences in enrollment sizes.
Taylor Allderdice will likely drop from 6A to 5A, going from 604 students to 474, Brashear drops from 5A to 4A with just 319 students, while Carrick is moving down to 3A from 4A with just 221 students in the lower three grades.
Westinghouse of also fell in enrollment from 149 students to 127 and looks to move down to 1A. The Bulldogs made the PIAA 2A final last season, losing to Southern Columbia and are currently in the PIAA playoffs again, facing off against WPIAL 2A Champion Beaver Falls in the state semifinals on Friday.
While enrollment numbers play a role in schools moving up or down classifications, private schools don’t necessarily choose to follow them. North Catholic, Shady Side Academy, Seton LaSalle, Imani Christian and Serra Catholic may choose to play up if they want to, despite having an enrollment lower than the number of boys needed to play in a certain classification.
The competitive-balance rule also comes into effect and may force some schools, like Aliquippa, to play higher than their enrollment.
The PIAA deadline for schools that want to play up is this Friday, Dec. 1. The full list of enrollment numbers of PIAA schools is here.
Classification + Enrollment
Class 6A: 620 and above
Class 5A: 424 to 619
Class 4A: 296 to 423
Class 3A: 217 to 295
Class 2A: 144 to 216
Class A: 1 to 143
