PIAA policy won’t let Aliquippa argue health and safety in rejecting move to Class 5A

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, January 5, 2024 | 5:25 PM

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Two years ago, Aliquippa argued relentlessly that it was too dangerous to force the small-school Quips to play Class 5A football and ultimately the school won its PIAA appeal.

The Quips are facing that scenario again under the PIAA competitive-balance rule, and Aliquippa superintendent Phillip Woods says his feelings haven’t changed about the health risks. But Woods says he’s disappointed that the appeal process has changed.

The PIAA policy now states that there is no health or safety concern for teams being forced up, so any arguments to the contrary “will not be considered.”

Woods wonders why.

“They’ve changed their appeal process to dismiss or not even entertain some of the key factors that led to the last win,” he said.

That has Woods convinced the change was directed largely at small schools like Aliquippa, meant to limit the discretion the PIAA board would have in granting appeals under the competitive-balance rule. Now, schools have limited ways to win their appeal.

“That’s the part that’s a little disheartening,” Woods said. “But at the same time, I’m not going to allow that to deter my energy or efforts in trying to do what’s right for my students. I just can’t accept that. I’ve got to do whatever I can to bring this injustice to light.”

On Friday, State Rep. Rob Matzie (D-Beaver) announced plans Friday to introduce legislation that would analyze the policy, practices, finances and structure of the PIAA, “with an eye toward overhauling how the PIAA operates and makes its decisions.”

Asked about the policy of excluding safety concerns from appeals, PIAA assistant executive director Pat Gebhart noted that the teams being promoted demonstrated a dominance over their peers in the lower classification.

“The PIAA Board of Directors believed that a school who has impacted the competition formula has done so through a high level of statewide sustained success due to an overwhelming advantage versus their opponents,” Gebhart said.

What makes the situation frustrating for Aliquippa is that the school is forced to face opponents three classifications larger than itself.

The latest PIAA enrollment numbers list Aliquippa with 156 boys, which would qualify the Quips for Class 2A football. Class 5A includes schools with 424 to 619 boys.

Before the 2020 season, Aliquippa voluntarily played in 3A. After being forced up once, the Quips won PIAA 4A titles this season and in 2021, and were state runners-up in 2022.

“What’s scary to me is that the kids who made the trips to the state championship are going to graduate,” Woods said. “And then these other kids who have dreams of being successful and want to make a name for themselves, they’re not going to be given the chance because they’re playing against groups three times their size.”

Schools had until Jan. 10 to file their initial appeal, which Aliquippa already has. If the first appeal is denied by the PIAA staff, schools can appeal to the PIAA board.

But schools can appeal on only two grounds:

• A mathematical error in the calculation of “success points,” the measure used by the PIAA to quantify postseason success. The Quips clearly surpassed the six-point threshold.

• Or an error in counting the number of transfers a team added. The threshold is less than three, a number Woods said Aliquippa will have trouble getting under.

Regardless, Woods said the school will push forward with its appeals.

“Hopefully, we go through the process and they say Aliquippa is an outlier,” Woods said. “You’ve got the success points. You’ve got the transfers. But in this situation, Aliquippa doesn’t necessarily fit into this scheme. If they want to say they’ll give us the benefit of the doubt again, we’ll take that.”

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: Aliquippa