As recently as 18 years ago, South Fayette High School’s enrollment was low enough that the Lions played football in the WPIAL’s smallest classification.
But the district’s population has increased so much that next year, South Fayette will play football in the WPIAL’s second-largest classification.
South Fayette, which has had one of the WPIAL’s top football programs in the past decade, will be in Class 5A starting in the 2020-21 school year. For this season and last, South Fayette has played Class 4A and won the WPIAL Class 4A title last year. South Fayette won WPIAL Class 2A titles in 2010, 2013 and 2014 when there were only four classifications.
South Fayette’s move to Class 5A is one of the most notable changes that will come about with the PIAA’s realignment of all sports classifications. The PIAA realigns classifications every two years, based on enrollment of boys and girls currently in grades 9-11.
On Thursday, the PIAA released classification enrollment parameters for all sports in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. Although the PIAA did not release actual enrollment figures of schools in the state, the Post-Gazette recently obtained unofficial enrollments for all Pennsylvania schools that are used by the PIAA to make sports classifications. The PIAA will release official enrollments for all schools in December, after they check for any mistakes and also receive notification from any schools if they choose to play “up” in classification.
One of the other major changes in the new alignment is that the Pine-Richland football team will play in Class 5A next year. Pine-Richland was one of the smallest Class 6A schools the past two years and actually dropped a little in boys enrollment this year.
Pine-Richland has won two of the past three WPIAL Class 6A titles. Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said the Rams would likely stay in Class 5A and not play “up.”
Among other major changes affecting WPIAL schools:
• The New Castle boys basketball team will move up to Class 5A from 4A. New Castle has won the past three WPIAL 4A titles and coach Ralph Blundo has won six championships in the past eight years.
• While Pine-Richland moves down to Class 5A football, the WPIAL will still have nine Class 6A teams because Baldwin is moving up to 6A.
• McKeesport, Mars and Hampton are dropping from Class 5A football to 4A, although McKeesport might choose to still play up in Class 5A. McKeesport’s enrollment placed the Tigers in 4A the past two years, but they chose to play in 5A.
• Avonworth is No. 3 in the current Class 2A football rankings but will move to Class 3A next year.
• Sto-Rox, one of the top Class 1A football teams this season, will move to Class 2A. Schools with boys enrollments of 129 and lower will be in Class 1A. Sto-Rox has 130.
• In boys basketball, Latrobe is moving down from Class 6A to 5A.
• North Hills’ enrollment will place the Indians’ boys basketball team in Class 5A, but coach Buzz Gabos said the team will still play 6A. North Hills could’ve been a 5A team the past two years, but chose to play up in 6A.
• Montour moves from Class 5A to 4A in boys basketball, while Highlands moves from 4A to 5A.
• The North Catholic boys basketball team moves from Class 3A to 4A. The Trojans were a WPIAL finalist in Class 3A last season.
The WPIAL will take the new classifications and make conferences and sections for the next two school years. But the WPIAL will not start that process until likely January.
The league is considering a change in its football landscape for next season, where conferences would be made up regionally by geography, and not just by classification. The new football makeup would have teams from two different classifications playing in the same conference, and the WPIAL would possibly have only four or five classifications in the regular season. But the league would still have playoff tournaments in six classifications.
The WPIAL will survey schools to ask if they would favor such a system. The plan is to bring in school representatives for a meeting in January and present them with different football alignment possibilities. WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said the league would then try to make a football alignment based primarily on what the majority of schools favor.
Here are the official PIAA classification parameters for all sports, using boys and girls enrollments.
FOOTBALL
Class 1A: 1-129; Class 2A: 130-195; Class 3A: 196-274; Class 4A: 275-398; Class 5A: 399-582; Class 6A: 583 and up.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Class 1A: 1-91; Class 2A: 92-140; Class 3A: 141-209; Class 4A: 210-304; Class 5A: 305-504; Class 6A: 505 and up.
BASEBALL
Class 1A: 1-107; Class 2A: 108-166; Class 3A: 167-236; Class 4A: 237-346; Class 5A: 347-530; Class 6A: 531 and up.
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
Class 1A: 1-187; Class 2A: 188-378; Class 3A: 379 and up.
BOYS GOLF
Class 2A: 1-270; 3A: 271 and up.
BOYS LACROSSE
Class 2A: 1-497; Class 3A: 498 and up.
BOYS SOCCER
Class 1A: 1-164; Class 2A: 165-267; Class 3A: 268-464; Class 4A: 465 and up.
BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING
Class 2A: 1-402; Class 3A: 403 and up.
BOYS TENNIS
Class 2A: 1-357; Class 3A: 358 and up.
BOYS TRACK AND FIELD
Class 2A: 1-249; Class 3A: 250 and up.
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Class 2A: 1-438; Class 3A: 439 and up.
WRESTLING
Class 2A: 1-298; Class 3A: 299 and up.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Class 1A: 1-91; Class 2A: 92-141; Class 3A: 142-204; Class 4A: 205-302; Class 5A: 303-472; Class 6A: 473 and up.
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Class 1A: 1-177; Class 2A: 178-357; Class 3A: 358 and up.
FIELD HOCKEY
Class 1A: 1-281; Class 2A: 282-492; Class 3A: 493 and up.
GIRLS GOLF
Class 2A: 1-270; Class 3A: 271 and up.
GIRLS LACROSSE
Class 2A: 1-430; Class 3A: 431 and up.
GIRLS SOCCER
Class 1A: 1-163; Class 2A: 164-264; Class 3A: 265-443; Class 4A: 444 and up.
SOFTBALL
Class 1A: 1-107; Class 2A: 108-160; Class 3A: 161-229; Class 4A: 230-331; Class 5A: 332-496; Class 6A: 497 and up.
GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING
Class 2A: 1-369; Class 3A: 370 and up.
GIRLS TENNIS
Class 2A: 1-335; Class 3A: 336 and up.
GIRL TRACK AND FIELD
Class 2A: 1-240; Class 3A: 241 and up.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Class 1A: 1-121; Class 2A: 122-229; Class 3A: 230-420; Class 4A: 421 and up.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
Do you appreciate good journalism? If you do, consider subscribing.
Support journalism. Subscribe today.
First Published: November 7, 2019, 7:04 p.m.
