Classes in high school football may go from four to six

Move has WPIAL schools threatening to withdraw from the state playoffs

Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Jul 04, 2009 00:03 EST

By ED GRUVER, Sports Writer

When it comes to Pennsylvania football coaches and administrators, East versus West isn't a dispute limited to frozen fields in December.

And the dispute has District Seven coaches, whose teams have been dominant in the state playoffs and won 29 titles, threatening to pull out of the tournament in favor of their own.

Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League bosses took a defensive stance the Steel Curtain would have envied in a May 21 meeting of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association in Chambersburg.

It was then that WPIAL grid chairman Rich Constantine obtained a postponement to vote on the expansion of enrollment-based classifications for the state's 598 football schools from the current four to six.

The proposal for 6-A football has already passed two votes at PIAA Board of Control meetings but needs to pass a third to be implemented for the 2010 season. Expansion has long been championed by many Eastern coaches, as has shortening the season from 16 weeks to 15 and avoid the overlap with winter sports.

"I've thought for years it would be a good idea (to expand)," said Manheim Central coach Mike Williams, who guided the Barons to consecutive state finals in 2003-04. "And the season definitely needs to be shortened."

This year's state playoffs are scheduled to be held Dec. 18-19, meaning that a season that starts with training camp in August won't end for the eight state finalists until a week before Christmas.

Lancaster Catholic coach Bruce Harbach took his team to the state semifinals last season and the experience convinced him the campaign was too long.

"We got into December and the season was starting to drag on," he said. "The kids started to wear down. You're talking about 15, 16 games and two scrimmages. That's an NFL season and these are high school kids."

Bill Cherpak, who has coached District Seven's Thomas Jefferson to three state Triple-A titles since 2004 and back-to-back championships in 2007-08, doesn't see the length of the season as a big concern.

"We'd have played 40 games if we had to, we didn't care," he said of his Jaguars. "The 16-game season affects so few teams and players. It's not going to affect 80 percent of the schools."

North Allegheny coach Art Walker Jr. agrees. He coached Pittsburgh Central Catholic to consecutive state title games in 2003-04. His '04 Vikings were the first 16-win team in state history.

"Sixteen games and two scrimmages, that's 18 weeks in pads," Walker said. "But there are only two teams left (in each class). And for those select few, it's a great situation for the school and the program to be in."

The votes to expand classification and shorten the season have been tabled until July 23-24, when chairmen from each of the 12 districts are scheduled to meet again.

"We should have voted in May," District Three football chairman John Ziegler said. "But when you get a motion to table (a vote), that takes precedence."

The vote to postpone fell 20-11 in favor, and Constantine said at the time there were too many questions — when to start the season; number of games; playoff weeks, etc. — that hadn't been answered.

He emphasized that District Seven was not the lone dissenter; District Four is also in favor of maintaining the status quo.

Coaches and administrators from District Seven, more commonly known as the WPIAL, have been most vocal about their displeasure with the PIAA trying to dramatically alter the way football is played in Pennsylvania.

"We think the state playoffs are very important and we want to be a part of them," Constantine said. "But what we think is best for our kids is to have that experience at Heinz Field. We don't want to lose that."

If the PIAA expands to six classes, WPIAL teams would lose their four championship games at Heinz Field. It's a western Pennsylvania tradition known as "Super Saturday" and dates back to 1986, when the district's title games were held at Three Rivers Stadium.

Since the Steelers are unlikely to sanction six championship games on a Heinz Field floor that is traditionally little more than a mud bowl by early December, the WPIAL, following an "all or nothing" rule, would transfer its title games to area high school stadiums.

" 'Super Saturday' is a great thing, and if I were them, I'd be fighting to keep it," Ziegler said. "But other people have needs, too."

District Seven's concerns extend beyond its title games. They also want to maintain the 16-week season. To avoid overlap with winter sports, WPIAL teams begin play prior to Labor Day. Eastern coaches have resisted starting the season that early.

In mid-April, District Seven officials circulated a survey to its 123 football schools. Of the 89 schools that returned the survey, 67 of them — 75 percent — opted to keep its WPIAL format and pull out of the PIAA playoffs.

"As far as I know, that's a last resort," Cherpak said. "Is it a reality? I think it is because most of the people (voting for it) have not played for a state championship. They don't understand it. They like the tradition of the WPIAL playoffs."

"If they want to drop out, fine," Williams said. "But I can't believe they would drop out of the state playoffs to play in their own little playoffs.

"I think there would be an outcry, because a state championship is the ultimate goal."

Lampeter-Strasburg coach John Manion understands the WPIAL's concerns. A product of District Seven's Charleroi High, Manion has no difficulty recalling the team's primary purpose every season.

"Get to Three Rivers Stadium," he said. "That was always the goal."

Mike Melnyk played for the University of Michigan in 1983-84. The Manheim Township coach equates the WPIAL's stance to that of the Wolverine squads coached by Bo Schembechler.

"Our philosophy always was, 'Beat Ohio State and win the Big 10,' " he said. "We only thought about the national championship after that."

Like Williams, Melnyk finds it hard to believe the WPIAL would act on its threats and pull out of the state playoffs.

"If they did that, they could say, 'We're WPIAL champions,' but they would still be thinking, 'How do we match up with the rest of the state?' "

As it stands now, the WPIAL can offer a resounding answer to that question. Since state football playoffs began in 1988, District Seven teams have appeared in 63 title games.

"They have some great teams," Melnyk said. "It would take some of the luster off the state championship if a large portion of the state wasn't competing."

Ziegler doesn't agree. For references, he points to the four consecutive state titles claimed by the Billy Owens-led Carlisle basketball machine of the late 1980s.

"Philadelphia schools weren't competing in the (state) tournament then," he points out. "But does that diminish what those Carlisle teams did?"

And since Philadelphia-area Catholic and public schools only recently began competing in the state football playoffs, the PIAA Tournament had gone two decades without being all-inclusive.

"When they let in the Catholic schools and Philadelphia public schools, they did it to enhance the playoffs, make them pure," Cherpak said. "We don't want to lose that."

Depending on the voting in the upcoming PIAA meeting, this December's championships could be the last pure state title games Pennsylvania will see for some time.

"There will be two votes," Ziegler said. "Number of weeks in a season falls under Article 16 of the by-laws. A by-law requires two-thirds of a vote to pass.

"The number of classifications is not a by-law, it's a policy and can be passed by a majority.

"We've been all over the board with this. Coming to a consensus with this East-West thing is very tough.

"I don't know if we ever will."

E-mail: egruver@lnpnews.com