“Goin’ Up Camp” is a series that features notes, quotes and anecdotes from district preseason high school football camps.
The 2021 graduating class at Aliquippa High School consisted of 39 students — boys and girls. Go to an Aliquippa football practice, look at the guys who put their hand onto the ground at the start of plays, and it’s a wonder how a school so small can have so many big players.
Aliquippa had a big team last year. Maybe the Quips are even bigger this year. Go check out the Steelers training camp and you won’t see much bigger linemen.
The likely starting defensive front for the Quips will be three talented juniors who average 6 feet 3 inches and 311 pounds. They are Naquan Crowder (6-4, 330), Jason McBride (6-3, 320) and Neco Eberhardt (6-2, 285), although Eberhardt might miss the first game while recovering from knee surgery earlier this summer.
Aliquippa likes to rotate defensive linemen sometimes. And if Crowder, Eberhardt and McBride aren’t big enough, Aliquippa can throw 6-7, 350-pound senior Tyreese Jones into the mix. Jones will start on offense and Crowder, McBride and Eberhardt also are offensive linemen. Then there’s 6-3, 270-pound senior Omar Banks who will play on both lines. The “little” linemen who also will play are senior Mason Lewis (6-2½, 280), junior Maurice Cary (6-1, 220) and sophomore Brayden Wilcox (6-0, 250).
And remember, all this size at a school whose enrollment would put the Quips in Class 1A. The Quips have chosen to play up in class for years and last year were bumped up even more to Class 4A, under the PIAA’s new competition formula, which takes some explaining.
“Size is good to a certain degree, but if you don’t have the numbers and don’t have the backups, that’s what makes it difficult being Class 1A and playing in 4A,” Warfield said.
Aliquippa had about 40 players at the PIAA’s five required heat acclimatization practices last week. Practices in full pads with full contact begin for all teams in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Considering Aliquippa’s enrollment numbers, it’s somewhat amazing that the Quips made it to the WPIAL Class 4A championship last year before losing in overtime to Thomas Jefferson. It was the 13th consecutive year that Aliquippa played for a WPIAL title.
“We can compete in this 4A league, but over time, if you don’t have the numbers to sub and replace players and you have a lot of kids who play on both sides of the ball, it’s difficult,” Warfield said.
It’s not like Aliquippa’s big players are sloppy and slow, either. Some of them move well. The best of the bunch might be Eberhardt or McBride. Eberhardt has started since his freshman year and could be a Division I college prospect.
“It all depends on how much he grows and how tall he gets,” Warfield said.
Well, he’s pretty big already.
Still 4A next year?
The PIAA classification competition formula can sometimes be a little hard to explain. But the bottom line with the formula and Aliquippa’s status is this: No matter how far Aliquippa goes in the postseason or even if they don’t even make the playoffs, they will likely be in Class 4A again next season.
Let’s try to explain. The competition formula was put in a few years ago as the PIAA’s attempt to answer some of the complaints about teams using transfers to make stronger teams, especially at Catholic and private schools. Under the formula, a team can be forced to bump up one classification for a two-year cycle if the team goes far in the postseason two years in a row and accumulates enough “success points,” but also has a certain number of players who are transfers over a two-year period. In football, the maximum number of transfers is three.
Now, let’s try to explain Aliquippa’s situation. Even though the Quips’ enrollment would place them in Class 1A, they have always chosen to play up and had chosen to be in 3A since 2016. After the 2019 season, Aliquippa had enough success points (6) and transfers to be bumped up one classification. When teams are forced to move up, the change is based on what classification they played in most recently, regardless if they chose to play up in class. Aliquippa played in Class 3A in 2019, so the Quips were bumped up to Class 4A in 2020, much to the school’s dismay. Warfield believes that, because the Quips were already playing up in classification, they should not have been bumped up again. But that’s not what the PIAA rules state.
Now, about why Aliquippa will probably be in Class 4A again next season, no matter what. This can be confusing, but part of the classification formula rules pertain to teams already bumped up in classification. Even if a football team that has been forced to move up and that team doesn’t meet the success points needed to be bumped up, but has the maximum three transfers, that team stays in the “bumped up” classification for the next two-year cycle.
Warfield said he is unsure how many transfer players Aliquippa has had the past two years. But it’s likely three. And if so, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi recently said Aliquippa would stay up in Class 4A.
Warfield didn’t agree with the PIAA when the Quips were forced to 4A in 2020. And he said the school will definitely appeal the ruling for next year if they are forced to 4A again.
“Somebody needs to speak for us,” Warfield said. “We graduated 39 students — boys and girls — last year. Did you hear I said 39, and we have to play in 4A? If we’re talking about fairness, then move us to Class 2A because we’re a 1A school (in enrollment). What are they trying to accomplish with what they are doing to us?
“I understand the rule. I’m not against the rule. If we were a 4A school (in enrollment), move us to 5A. If we have to be moved, move us from the class that we are in enrollment wise. That’s all I’m trying to say.”
Lombardi said the PIAA board of directors are considering an addition to the rule where teams that are bumped in class and have three football transfers again, but do no accumulate any success points, can return to their correct classification, based on enrollment. But he said that rule wouldn’t apply to Aliquippa because they already accumulated two success points last year by making it to the WPIAL championship.
Missing Sonny
Antonyo “Sonny” Anderson would’ve been one of Aliquippa’s top returning receivers from last season. But Anderson, a senior, won’t play this year while recovering from being shot in the back in May. According to police, Anderson was driving his car near the Valley Terrace apartments when shot, and he crashed into an embankment.
“With Sonny, we had so much anticipation for him to do well this year,” Warfield said. “It’s hard for his teammates, not just from a physical aspect, but from a mental aspect. He’s one of their friends and he was doing everything he was supposed to be doing. He had good grades and he was starting to get some scholarship offers. He was working hard to have a better year this year and had ambition to play at the college level. Then this happens. It’s just a sad story.”
Warfield said Anderson is “doing better,” walking with braces.
“The community has supported him,” Warfield said. “We’re trying to get him a different house to stay and another vehicle because his car was shot up and totaled.
“That’s why I’m here, more for those type of things that these kids can trust me and count on me. This football is always going to be here, no matter who the coach is. If I leave tomorrow, the football is still going to go on. It’s those things outside of football you want to try and have a handle on and make sure they have support, no matter what their home situation has been.”
Championship or bust
Warfield doesn’t hold back when asked what this team’s goals are for the season. They’re always the same at Aliquippa and he feels the Quips came up short the past two years because they lost in the WPIAL championship.
“We haven’t had success the last two years and it doesn’t matter whether we got blown out in the championship both times or lost close games,” Warfield said. “That’s just the way it has to be here. That’s the only way in life, too. You have to give it all you got every year, every day.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: August 16, 2021, 12:45 p.m.
Updated: August 16, 2021, 1:05 p.m.