Another high school came close to pulling out of the WPIAL for football because its team is struggling to be competitive.
The Uniontown school board voted, 6-2, Monday night to stay in the WPIAL, but the school seriously was considering dropping out of the league for football only, and possibly playing an independent schedule next season against teams from outside the WPIAL. Uniontown has played WPIAL football for almost 100 years.
In mid-October, Albert Gallatin decided to leave the WPIAL for football only, beginning in 2019. Albert Gallatin and Uniontown are in Fayette County and Albert Gallatin made its decision because it struggled for decades to be competitive.
“We had public comment at the meeting,” said Dan Bosnic, assistant superintendent of the Uniontown Area School District. “A couple parents spoke. But the board just felt that the best decision to make at this time is to stay.”
Before the meeting, Bosnic discussed why leaving the WPIAL was being considered.
“We’re just trying to evaluate every option for our students,” Bosnic said. “We obviously have struggled greatly in recent years. We want to see if there’s another avenue that might give our students a better chance to have success on Friday nights.”
Uniontown finished 0-10 this season in WPIAL Class 3A. Uniontown is the biggest school in Class 3A, in terms of enrollment. The Raiders have not won a game since the 2016 season, have lost 22 in a row and have gone 3-45 in the past five years.
But since 2000, Uniontown has had five winning seasons, the most recent in 2009. In 2001, Uniontown was 9-1. Uniontown has won two WPIAL titles (1962 and 1965), but the Raiders have made the WPIAL playoffs only 14 times in school history.
Uniontown started this past season with close to 40 players, but was down to about 20 by the season’s end for various reasons.
Bosnic said Albert Gallatin’s decision to leave the WPIAL was not the impetus for Uniontown’s departure from the WPIAL.
“We had these discussions prior to Albert Gallatin making that determination,” Bosnic said.
Cedric Lloyd, Uniontown’s coach, did not commit one way or the other about leaving the WPIAL.
“What I’ve been letting everyone know is I’m prepared to try and make us better,” Lloyd said. “That might mean something different to a lot of different people. But I’m in this to improve our student-athletes and make them better.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh.
First Published: December 4, 2018, 1:38 a.m.