The WPIAL basketball playoffs this season will be like one big party — and everyone is invited.
The WPIAL board of directors voted Monday to make a major change to the basketball playoffs for boys and girls teams. The league will have an open tournament, meaning all 133 boys teams and 126 girls teams are invited to participate, regardless of record and number of games played. The change came based upon a recommendation from the league’s basketball committee.
The WPIAL thought it best to try an open tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a shutdown of all high school and youth sports from Dec. 12 to Jan. 4. Due to cancellations of games already — and likely more in the future — teams might not play all of their section contests, which were used in the past to determine playoff participants. The top four teams from each section have qualified for the playoffs since 2004.
Teams must notify the WPIAL between Feb. 1-18 if they wish to participate in the playoffs. The WPIAL basketball committee will then seed teams and make playoff pairings.
“We don’t know how many section games will be played or canceled,” WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman said. “We wouldn’t be able to determine accurate section finishes in order to qualify for the tournament. ... After discussion, this (open tournament) is the only way to look at this at this time.”
Although this is a drastic change for the WPIAL playoffs, it is not the first time the league staged an open tournament. The other time was 1984, when 130 boys teams and 108 girls teams participated. But that year, 12 boys and 23 girls teams elected not to participate. The WPIAL scrapped the idea after one season.
While the open tournament is the biggest change to this year’s postseason, the WPIAL board also approved other notable changes dealing with home games in the playoffs, masks and an extension of the regular season:
• All playoff games through the semifinals will be played at the home court of the higher-seeded team, provided that school meets the yet-to-be decided criteria to play host to a game. The league did the same in the football playoffs this season. Only the basketball championships will be played at a neutral site, but those sites have yet to be determined. Scheuneman said the league has not ruled out having the title games at Petersen Events Center, but it is too early to make that decision.
The WPIAL basketball championships will be March 12, 13 and 15.
The reason for the home playoff sites is, again, the COVID-19 pandemic. By playing a game at a home site instead of a neutral site, it takes away one school to possibly spread the virus.
• The PIAA has extended the season by about a week and will take only district champions to the state playoffs for the first time since 1971. That allowed the WPIAL to extend the regular season in order for teams to make up postponed games. WPIAL section play was scheduled to end Feb. 12 and the playoff pairings and seedings would’ve been decided in the next few days. Now, the pairings will be announced possibly Feb. 23-24 The playoffs will likely start Feb. 26 and teams can still play up until Feb. 26.
• Some schools in the WPIAL are making their teams wear masks, even in games or competitions, while many are not requiring masks. A small percentage of schools also will not permit their teams to play a game against an opponent not wearing masks. If a team does not play a regular season game (section or non-section) because the opponent is not wearing masks, the game shall be declared “no contest.”
But the situation is different for the playoffs. The WPIAL decided a team will forfeit a playoff game if it does not play because the opponent is not wearing masks.
The open tournament concept was still the big news of the day. There are a few head coaches this season who either played or coached in that first open tournament in 1984. A quick sampling of coaches shows they favor an open tournament idea.
“This year, I think it’s a great option because you don’t know how many games you are going to get in. The more games you get to play, the better,” said Neshannock girls coach Luann Grybowski, who was Shenango’s coach in 1984. “What you have is a lot of kids aren’t going to school in-person, they don’t get to socialize much, so if everyone can have the thought of making the playoffs, I think that’s good.
“I think the teams that will benefit are the teams in tougher sections that might not make the playoffs, like us last year. We were playing better at the end of the year, but didn’t make it because we were the fifth-place team. Fifth place in our section is better than second or third in a lot of other sections.”
Trinity girls coach Kathy McConnell Miller was a junior player at Seton LaSalle in the 1984 open tournament.
“I’m always a proponent of more opportunities to play,” McConnell Miller said. “The more opportunities for these young women to get on the court and be part of something as great as a postseason tournament, that’s significant for them and something they will always remember.”
McConnell Miller, though, hopes the WPIAL urges teams to play their section schedules, using makeup dates if needed.
“When it’s safe to play, I think it’s important to play your section games,” McConnell Miller said. “I hope decisions aren’t made by teams to not make up a section game because, ‘We’re going to the playoffs, anyway.’”
Bob Petcash, first-year boys coach at Pine-Richland, said, “The way the year 2020 has gone, I think the open tournament is a great idea because you don’t know what’s going to happen with games being canceled, practices being scheduled and even kids training the proper way.”
Other WPIAL matters
• The WPIAL board of directors voted to add a subsection round to the league’s individual wrestling championships. The change means all postseason events will not have more than eight wrestlers per weight class, which was recommended by the PIAA.
• The WPIAL doesn’t have a site yet for the swimming championships. Scheuneman said Pitt’s Trees Pool is still a possibility, but that high school venues are being considered.
• Championships for gymnastics, rifle and cheer were all pushed back a few weeks.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: December 21, 2020, 9:47 p.m.
