The defending WPIAL Class AAAA boys' basketball champion will have some northern exposure next season.

Central Catholic will move from playing east suburban teams in Section 2, to playing all north suburban teams in Section 3. The change was one of the most notable in the WPIAL's basketball realignment, which was released yesterday. The league realigns in all sports every two years.

"I've been here too long to be bitter and complain about it," said Chuck Crummie, Central Catholic's longtime coach. "The only thing is, we just have no rivalries whatsoever with teams in [Section 3]. If we played someone like Penn Hills in the old section, our gym would be packed. I just don't know how much interest we'll have against some of these [northern] teams."

A couple of things caused the change. First, New Castle dropped out of Section 3 and down to Class AAA because of its enrollment. So, the WPIAL needed another team in Section 3. The only logical candidates geographically were Central Catholic, in Oakland, or Fox Chapel, which also plays in Section 2. Although Fox Chapel is a northern area school, the Foxes' girls' team is in Section 2 with eastern suburban schools.

"What we attempted to do wherever possible was put as many boys' and girls' teams in the same conferences, just because it helps in a lot of areas," said WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley. "Central Catholic doesn't have a girls' team."

Also, the Fox Chapel boys requested to stay in Section 2 because the team had changed sections a number of times the past decade.

From 1996-98 Central Catholic played in a section with South Hills area teams. In the early 1980s, Central Catholic played in a section against the northern area teams.

"We've been on the move before," Crummie said. "There is a different style of play [in Section 3]. Instead of 76-74, you see 43-41 games."

In some other notable changes, the Moon boys dropped down to AAA and will play in a section with Chartiers Valley. The Moon girls moved up to AAAA.

The New Castle boys and girls moved down to AAA and will play in a section that includes Blackhawk and Hopewell.

The WPIAL also released its wrestling realignment and there is a big change in the regular season. Every section now has two subsections (A and B). On the final night of the regular season, the top two teams in subsection A and the top two in B will have a tournament to determine the section champion.