The Aliquippa High School football team won the PIAA Class 4A championship this past season with a perfect record. But the Quips lost to the PIAA on Tuesday and will have to play in Class 5A for the next two seasons.
Due to the PIAA’s competition classification formula rule, Aliquippa was slated to move up one classification. The PIAA informed Aliquippa of the move recently, and the Quips appealed their case to the PIAA board of directors. But after Tuesday’s appeal hearing, the PIAA board of directors voted that Aliquippa still must move up to Class 5A for the next two seasons.
Aliquippa coach Mike Warfield was upset at the PIAA’s decision — but not surprised.
“It’s what we expected,” Warfield said. “After we presented our case and it was left open [for the PIAA board of directors] to ask questions, there were no questions asked. It was pretty clear they already had their minds made up.
“But OK. Put us in 5A. We’re going to try to get to 6A next.”
Warfield, though, said this case isn’t closed. He said the school plans to take the PIAA to court over the issue.
“All the schools being affected by this rule need to come together collectively,” Warfield said.
Aliquippa was one of six teams that had appeal hearings with the PIAA on Tuesday about their bump up in classification. The others were Villa Maria field hockey, Springfield Township boys soccer, Steelton-Highspire football, Wyomissing football and Bishop Guilfoyle football. The PIAA ruled against all of the teams except Bishop Guilfoyle football.
“It’s just a shame,” Warfield said.
Under the competition classification formula rule, which the PIAA instituted in 2018, a football team is bumped up one class if it goes far in the postseason in two consecutive years and has three transfers over those two years. Aliquippa went to the state championship the past two years and had five transfers over the past two years. Thus, the bump to Class 5A.
Aliquippa had a school enrollment that would’ve placed the Quips in Class 1A years ago. But the Quips voluntarily played up in Class 3A. Then, in 2020, Aliquippa was bumped up to Class 4A because of the competition classification formula. Aliquippa was supposed to be bumped up to Class 5A two years ago, but the school won an appeal with the PIAA and stayed in Class 4A. But the Quips didn’t win this time.
Aliquippa used Warfield, a lawyer, a doctor, school superintendent Phillip Woods and athletic director Jennifer Damico to make its case to the PIAA on Tuesday via Zoom video.
Aliquippa contended that moving to Class 5A could be a safety issue for the team because it will be playing schools as much as four times larger than Aliquippa. But the PIAA put in its bylaws recently that safety could not be an argument against bumping up in classification. Aliquippa used safety as a reason for its appeal two years ago.
But Warfield and Aliquippa school officials also contended that the five transfers shouldn’t count against the team because they made practically no contribution to the team the past two years. Two of the players quit the team.
The five transfers combined for only one touchdown, 4 yards rushing and 136 yards receiving the past two seasons.
“There is a school out east [Southern Columbia] that’s been to a state championship game seven years in a row,” Warfield told the PIAA board. “They don’t move up because they say they don’t have any transfers, which is essentially saying no transfers helped them win. It’s the same as us.
“[Westinghouse] has been in a state championship two years in a row. They actually went down in classification [to Class 1A] for next year because they said they didn’t have transfers. Essentially, they’re saying no transfer helped them with their success. It’s clear based on statistics that no transfer helped with our success, either. We don’t consider them transfers.”
But in the classification competition formula rules, the PIAA states that contributions by a player to a team will have no bearing on whether a team gets bumped up in class.
“The thing about this is we win because of our work ethic and commitment of the coaches and players — and not because of transfers,” Warfield said. “People need to know that. The stats prove it.”
In other news that came out of a PIAA board of directors meeting Tuesday, the PIAA will not force the WPIAL to take Farrell into the league. Farrell received permission to leave District 10 and recently applied for membership to the WPIAL (District 7). But the WPIAL a few weeks ago turned down Farrell for admission.
Farrell appealed its case to the PIAA, and the PIAA could’ve forced the WPIAL to take Farrell. But the PIAA voted against it.
Farrell left the WPIAL for District 10 in 2006. One of the reasons the WPIAL gave for not admitting Farrell was increased travel for teams that had to play at Farrell.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: January 25, 2024, 12:43 a.m.
Updated: January 25, 2024, 8:05 p.m.
