This year marks the 25th anniversary of Marian’s 1990 PIAA Class A state championship team.
The Colts rolled through their regular-season schedule unscathed, a slate that included games with Wilkes-Barre Meyers, North Schuylkill, Blue Mountain, Pottsville, Mount Carmel, West Hazleton and Tamaqua.
Despite a 12-6 loss to Hanover Area in the Eastern Conference Class B semifinals, Marian got into the PIAA Class A Eastern Final on rating points.
The Colts decked Canton 34-14 before beating District 7 powerhouse Farrell 21-13 at Memorial Stadium in Middletown to become the area’s first PIAA state football champion.
The PIAA football playoffs were only three years old in 1990, and have come a long way since then.
Now, PIAA leaders and the athletic directors of its member schools are faced with a big decision — Should the football playoffs be expanded from four classifications to six?
The brainchild of retired Brookville athletic administrator Bob Tonkin, the PIAA’s football proposals have garnered a lot of interest over the summer.
Originally eight scenarios, the football proposals were sliced to three options during committee meetings in July:
• Keep the current four-class format
• Expand to six evenly-divided classes
• Create a “Super 700” class with all schools of enrollments of 700 or higher, then five classes evenly divided among the remaining schools
Those three proposals will be discussed again when the PIAA’s football and strategic planning committees meet Sept. 16. The PIAA board will hold meetings Oct. 7 and Dec. 17, where any subsequent readings would take place, according to District 11 chairman Bob Hartman.
There’s more, however, to the changing PIAA football landscape than just expanding to six classes.
The PIAA already passed a “10-percent rule” for calculating enrollment figures that will be used by all sports. The “10-percent rule” allows public schools to only count 10 percent of its students that are home-schooled or attend a charter school, cyber-charter school, alternative education or a technical school full-time.
The “10-percent rule” basically lowers the enrollment numbers for public schools while keeping the enrollment figures for private schools — Catholic, Christian, charter, etc. — the same.
Also under consideration is the shortening of the season by one week, the elimination of the second scrimmage and all the logistics involved with having six state championship games. The six-class format is also being considered for other sports, including boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball.
The Republican-Herald discussed the issue with nearly all of the 20 head coaches in its coverage area during the preseason to gauge their opinion on the proposals.
Their opinions were basically split, with some in favor, some not in favor, and some that really had no opinion at all.
Here’s a look at some of the issues PIAA officials, athletic directors and head coaches must consider when weighing the six-classification proposals:
‘Big School Problem’
The expansion to six classes for football was developed out of constant complaints by “smaller” Class AAAA schools that they were overmatched going against schools with much larger enrollments.
In District 11 Class AAAA, for example, Parkland (1,259), Bethlehem Liberty (1,254), William Allen (1,252) and Easton (1,101) all have
boys’ enrollments over 1,000 students, while Nazareth (592), East Stroudsburg South (559) and Whitehall (548) are roughly half their size.
In Schuylkill County, however, there aren’t any Class AAAA schools in the current format. Pottsville (383) and Blue Mountain (363) are the two biggest and are Class AAA by current standards.
Whether four classes or six, the Crimson Tide and Eagles will still be in the same class with familiar opponents like Southern Lehigh, Saucon Valley and Allentown Central Catholic.
If the PIAA does expand to six classes, Pottsville and Blue Mountain would be Class AAAA.
“When they readjust it, even though we might be considered a Quad-A school when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be teams your size,” Blue Mountain coach Cory Mabry said. “It doesn’t matter what the number of letters are in front of your name, you are still playing against teams you played against in the old system. It’s going to affect the big schools the most.”
The attention to the big schools has also created disinterest for the area’s small schools, most of which are unaffected by the switch to six classes.
“I’m perfectly fine with the status quo. To me, it’s a big-school problem,” Marian coach Stan Dakosty said.
Added Tri-Valley coach Mike
Ulicny: “For us, it doesn’t really matter. We’re as low as you can be (enrollment wise).”
Shortened Season
One thing that must be ironed out in the passing/failing of the six-classification proposals is the length of the high school football season.
In 2015, the season is 19 weeks long, beginning the week of Aug. 10-14 with heat acclimatization practices and ending Friday-Saturday, Dec. 18-19, with the state championships in Hershey.
Shortening the season in some fashion is a goal of the PIAA. Slicing the number of regular-season games from 10 to nine, or eliminating the second scrimmage, are among the items being considered.
Those topics were hot-button items for some of the area’s coaches.
“I’ve always said if you ask somebody that has a chance to play in a state championship game, do you mind going a little longer, they’d say no,” Dakosty said. “We were there once. Most teams are lucky to get there once. Some teams get there every year. That’s a special situation.”
Schuylkill Haven coach Mike Farr, who is the District 11 president of the Pennsylvania High School Football Coaches Association, worries about player safety if the second scrimmage is eliminated.
“If they do not change our allowable mandatory practices in the preseason, then my 14-year-old kids (freshmen) are only going to have one week to physically hit and prepare to play in a varsity football game,” Farr said. “That’s not fair to them.
“I fear for all these small schools that have less than 35-40 players, and you’re rotating kids through. When your 1’s are head and shoulders above your 2’s, and the only competitive you’re going to get to evaluate them is going against a second kid ... it’s going to force more teams to go more live drills where you have disparities between 18-year-old kids and 15-year-old kids.
“What work do they get in? Why do I pound this 14-year-old kid that’s across from him for a two-hour bludgeoning every day, all because we don’t want to have a second scrimmage? I think it’s irresponsible of us not to think about preparation.”
Farr’s suggestion, if 10 regular-season games and one scrimmage is the plan that eventually prevails, is to increase the workload during heat acclimatization week and add a “competitive practice” like the NFL has during its training camps.
“During heat acclimatization they give us five days to go three consecutive,” Farr explained. “Give us five days, make the first three mandatory, then allow us to go Day 4 and Day 5 heavy and one of those days we can have a competitive practice.
“It’s a practice. But you get to practice 1’s on 1’s and 2’s on 2’s. It’s player safety.”
Public vs. Private
Lost amid all of the talk concerning switching to six classifications is the on-going debate concerning public vs. private schools.
Since the inclusion of the Philadelphia Public League and Philadelphia Catholic League schools about a decade ago, District 12 has had at least one football team play in a state championship game every year since 2008.
Most of those schools have been Catholic schools — Archbishop Wood, West Catholic — or private schools like LaSalle College, St. Joseph’s Prep and Imhotep Charter that attract student-athletes from all over the Philadelphia area and New Jersey. The situation is even worse in basketball.
Locally, District 11 schools Bethlehem Catholic and the now-closed Pius X drew similar allegations of recruiting, while Marian has benefitted from the closing of Cardinal Brennan and Bishop Hafey high schools to gain students from the Frackville and Hazleton areas.
Despite calls for separate public and private school divisions, the PIAA has done nothing to address the issue.
“I really don’t care what classes there are,” said Upper Dauphin coach Brent Bell, who battles Catholic schools Delone Catholic, York Catholic and Trinity in the District 3 playoffs.
“ My opinion is that if we are still expected to compete with schools that can recruit, then I don’t think it’s solving any issues. We might as well stay the way we are now.
“I think there’s a disparity with certain schools, especially in District 3. Under the preliminary numbers that I’ve seen, we’ll be in with three private schools. I just don’t think that should be the case. I have some issues with that.
“Regardless of what they do, unless it fixes that problem, then it doesn’t matter to me. We’ll be in the same boat either way.”
‘Diluting the Field’
If the PIAA expands to six classes, the number of teams that qualify for the District 11 playoffs will be cut in half in most cases.
Classes A, AA, AAAA and AAAAA would get just two qualifiers, while Class AAA would get four. The Class AAA bracket would have 12 teams, including Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Tamaqua and North Schuylkill.
In some classes, subregional tournaments would be held.
“With six classes, I think you’re going to spread the teams too thin,” Pine Grove coach Jeff Sampson said. “It’s going to minimize the numbers that get in to each class playoff-wise.”
In the balanced six-class format, using the current District 11 enrollment numbers, there would be seven teams in Class A, five in Class AA, 12 in Class AAA, five in Class AAAA, six in 5A and 12 in 6A.
In the Super 700 format, there would be seven teams in Class A, six in Class AA, 13 in Class AAA, five in Class AAAA, seven in 5A and nine in 6A.
“Showing my age, I’d want to compete at the state level with Dunmore, Old Forge, Camp Hill and Southern Columbia,” Williams Valley coach Tim Savage said. “If we were to have a successful season and make it to the state playoffs, I want to play the teams that have acquired several championships.
“It seems to me that so many of those have bumped to Double-A, that Single-A is almost a moot point.”
Some coaches look at the other side of that coin when it comes to creating more classes.
“Any time you can provide an opportunity for more schools across the state to be district champions and state champions is an excellent idea. Especially with the number of schools that we have in Pennsylvania playing football,” Jim Thorpe coach Mark Rosenberger said. “It’s a good opportunity for more athletes and more schools to be a state champion.”
Added Lehighton’s Tom McCarroll: “The one thing I definitely like about it is that it gives more kids, more teams to play meaningful games. Any time you get that opportunity, I think it’s a good thing.
“From what I see on the surface, it could be a good thing for District 11.”
Enrollment numbers for the 2016-18 PIAA cycle will be submitted in October, and could change the numbers listed above.
It is also unknown when any changes to the classification structure for football, or any other PIAA sport, would be implemented if passed.
Until then, we’ll wait and see.
How our area schools fit
Here’s where the 20 schools in The Republican-Herald coverage area would fall in each of the PIAA’s three football classification proposals:
FOUR CLASSES
Class AAAA (466 and above) — None
Class AAA (292-465) — Pottsville, Blue Mountain, Shamokin
Class AA (168-291) — Hamburg, Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Tamaqua, North Schuylkill, Mount Carmel, Pine Grove
Class A (167 and below) — Upper Dauphin, Panther Valley, Minersville, Marian, Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy Area, Williams Valley, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley, Nativity
SIX CLASSES
Class AAAAAA (578 and above) — None
Class AAAAA (391-577) — None
Class AAAA (285-390) — Pottsville, Blue Mountain, Shamokin, Hamburg
Class AAA (198-284) — Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Tamaqua, North Schuylkill, Mount Carmel
Class AA (140-197) — Pine Grove, Upper Dauphin, Panther Valley, Minersville, Marian
Class A (139 and below) — Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy Area, Williams Valley, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley, Nativity
SUPER 700
Class AAAAAA (700 and above) — None
Class AAAAA (448-699) — None
Class AAAA (309-447) — Pottsville, Blue Mountain, Shamokin
Class AAA (207-308) — Hamburg, Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Tamaqua, North Schuylkill
Class AA (144-206) — Mount Carmel, Pine Grove, Upper Dauphin, Panther Valley, Minersville, Marian
Class A (143 and below) — Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy Area, Williams Valley, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley, Nativity
— Schools listed in order of enrollment