The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) denied Farrell’s request to join the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic League (WPIAL) on Wednesday.
The PIAA voted unanimously to deny Farrell’s request to move districts. PIAA denying the request means that the decision is final, as the WPIAL board voted unanimously, 17-0 with three abstentions, to deny Farrell joining District 7 last week.
Much of the reason for the WPIAL not wanting to bring Farrell into the conference has to do with travel costs. In an interview with Chris Harlan of the Tribune-Review, WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said that the board voted against Farrell because they didn’t want to burden school districts with travel costs to the school.
The school district attempted to leave for the WPIAL in 2015, but District 10 prohibited them and the PIAA also rejected the move. The school board also voted 8-1 to join the WPIAL in November and District 10 allowed them to leave, but with the PIAA’s decision, it appears that they will stay put.
Farrell has six WPIAL football titles in its history, with a 3A title in 1951, 2A title in 1976 and four 1A titles in 1986, 1990, 1995, 1996. The basketball team is level with Aliquippa for second-most WPIAL titles with 13 and girls’ volleyball has a WPIAL record 20 titles.
Farrell left the WPIAL back in 2006 and has played in District 10 since then. District 10 consists of schools in the northwest part of Pennsylvania, with the prominent Erie schools in McDowell and Cathedral Prep and more rural schools like Meadville and Reynolds in Greenville, Pa.
Farrell athletic director and football head coach Anthony Pegues spoke to Harlan back in November and said that major reason for wanting to go to the WPIAL included dealing with racial incidents from other schools, featuring an instance this fall where they asked District 10 to deal with racism at a girls’ volleyball match. 75% of Farrell’s student body is Black and 83.9% is minority enrollment, compared to the school districts in the area with a much higher White percentage in their student bodies.
Farrell is about 69 miles north west from downtown Pittsburgh on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border in Mercer County, more northern than any other WPIAL school.The length of travel is also something that, while playing a role in Farrell leaving the WPIAL in 2006, still is an issue in District 10, with teams about an hour to 90-minute drives away.
Schools in Lawrence, Beaver and Armstrong counties are about the same distance or shorter for Farrell. The WPIAL would have also provided much tougher competition for the school district, which has 11 football titles since joining in 2006, including nine straight since 2015. The potential for better matchups also allows for colleges to recruit the athletes at high school, which benefits the school district greatly.
The PIAA, during the meeting, also approved a motion to help District 10 deal with the issues that Farrell has, particularly travel. Whether or not they can handle racist incidents better is a much different story.