5 things to watch: First-round byes create new twist for WPIAL football playoffs

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, November 5, 2021 | 1:17 PM

Byes, byes, byes.

The WPIAL football playoff brackets have a different look this season with the addition of 15 first-round byes. Which begs the question: Do coaches want a week off at this time of year?

With a laugh, Clairton coach Wayne Wade said he’d answer that question after next week’s game. The No. 1-seeded Bears are the only Class A team to earn a bye.

“You just hope that next week they’re ready to go,” Wade said. “The bye kind of helps them get their bodies together, if you have any injuries. But on the flip side, you worry about them staying focused.”

There were no byes last season.

In 2019, there were only two.

Yet, when the WPIAL decided to expand its playoff field this season, byes were included in five of the six classifications. Only Class 2A has a full bracket with no teams idle. There are four byes in both Class 5A and 3A, and three byes apiece in Class 6A and 4A.

Wade considered the pros and cons as even.

“It’s six in one hand, half dozen in the other,” he said.

However, sitting idle won’t be a totally new experience for Clairton. The Bears had an open week in the regular season when Imani Christian forfeited. In years past, Clairton and some other WPIAL champions had a bye week before the state playoffs started.

“We’ve kind of learned how to deal with it,” Wade said. “We’ve pulled back a little bit but still kept the kids focused. I think we did a good job this week of doing that. We still prepare like we’re playing.”

Getting an early start

For the second year in a row, teams found out their playoff opponent a couple of days earlier than usual. Rather than the traditional Monday night pairings meeting in Green Tree, the WPIAL revealed the brackets online Saturday on TribLive HSSN.

The early reveal was received well.

“Without a doubt,” Peters Township coach T.J. Plack said. “I think everyone’s been begging for this.”

That 6 p.m. Saturday reveal gave coaches a head start in breaking down film, even if they were hundreds of miles from home last weekend. That’s what Plack and a couple of his assistants did.

They were in Gainesville, Fla., last Saturday to watch a college football game. No. 1-ranked Georgia was visiting Florida, which has former Peters Township standout Donovan McMillon on the team. McMillon’s father, Derrin McMillon, is one of Plack’s assistants.

The group planned the trip before knowing the brackets would be announced Saturday.

“Sunday morning we’re sitting in the hotel breaking film down,” Plack said with a laugh.

With that prep work finished, the Indians spent Monday’s practice focused on North Hills, the team’s first-round opponent. In years past, that Monday practice was traditionally spent on fundamentals and individual drills rather than scheme work, Plack said, since their next opponent was still unknown.

First-round rematches

There are two conference rematches in the first round: One was inevitable but the other was by choice.

The inevitable rematch was in Class 6A where North Allegheny hosts Canon-McMillan at 7 p.m. Friday. There are only eight WPIAL teams in 6A and they all played one another once in the regular season. North Allegheny won, 36-14, at Canon-McMillan in Week 7.

However, in Class 4A, the WPIAL football committee chose to pair No. 4 seed Hampton with No. 13 Plum in the first round even though both come from the Greater Allegheny Conference. Hampton won their first matchup, 35-7, in Week 6.

The committee traditionally avoided first-round conference rematches but decided Plum should be seeded last in the 13-team bracket as the only fifth-place finisher in the playoff field.

“It’s a rule but an unwritten rule,” committee co-chairman Mike Burrell said, when the WPIAL revealed the brackets. “If you can avoid conference matchups, you do so. We looked at it and felt overall that the last-place team in the tournament was Plum.”

No rest for Ironmen

Five of the six top-seeded teams are off this week with Mt. Lebanon, Moon, Belle Vernon, Central Valley and Clairton drawing first-round byes.

Steel Valley is the only No. 1 seed in action Friday, but when you’re nicknamed the Ironmen, you’d better be ready to work. And after a three-year wait, they’re surely eager for a playoff game anyway.

As the top-seed team in Class 2A, Steel Valley hosts No. 16 Beth-Center at 7 p.m. Friday. The playoff game will be Steel Valley’s first since winning the WPIAL title in 2018. Coincidentally, the Ironmen started that championship run with a 49-0 first-round win over Beth-Center.

City and states

The state playoffs begin this week for three City League teams. Brashear, University Prep and Westinghouse have PIAA sub-regional games at 7 p.m. Friday scattered across Western Pennsylvania.

One game is a Cupples Stadium, a Class 2A matchup between Westinghouse and Chestnut Ridge of District 5. Elsewhere, Brashear visits Erie’s Cathedral Prep in 5A, and University Prep travels to DuBois Area in 4A.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Canon-McMillan, Clairton, Hampton, North Allegheny, Peters Township, Plum, Steel Valley