WPIAL notebook: Wrestling teams want in-season tournaments exempt from PIAA contest limit

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, September 17, 2024 | 11:21 AM

If WPIAL wrestling teams get their wish, some in-season tournaments no longer will count toward their 22-contest limit set by the PIAA.

The WPIAL board will consider a request to reclassify events such as the Midwestern Athletic Conference Tournament and the Tri-County Athletic Directors Tournament as “league championships,” and therefore exempt from the regular-season limit written into the PIAA bylaws. The board voted Monday to have a subcommittee consider the idea and make a recommendation back to the board for its October meeting.

It’s an issue for teams because the WPIAL is organized differently than many of the other 11 PIAA districts. Some districts are a collection of multiple leagues, and PIAA rules let each of those leagues hold an exempt tournament to decide a champion. That means they get separate league and district tournaments.

The WPIAL is the only league in District 7, so they’re one and the same.

“In other districts, their league tournaments don’t count (toward the PIAA limit),” WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said. “That’s what sort of spurred this all on. Somebody said, ‘Hey, they’re not counting this. Why do we count ours?’ So that’s the discussion that has to happen.”

Wrestling is limited to 22 contests in a 12-week regular season. A dual meet counts as one contest. A three-team meet or team bracketed tournament with eight or fewer teams counts as two contests. A four-team meet or a tournament with nine or more teams counts as three contests.

The MAC tournament had 16 teams last winter, and the Tri-County event had 17. There are a number of other annual championship tournaments, too, including for Allegheny County and Westmoreland County titles.

The PIAA bylaws say: “With District Committee approval, Contests that are required to be played in order to determine qualifiers to District Championship Contests and/or Contests that are required to be played to determine a conference or league champion do not count toward the maximum number of Regular Season Contests in that sport and must be played by the District Deadline in that sport.”

Seltzer said there is some concern that if the WPIAL allowed wrestling the option of an exempt in-season tournament, why not any other sport?

“I think a lot of our board members are concerned with, if you allow one, where does it stop?” Seltzer said.

He also said the WPIAL must weigh whether an increased number of contests would be detrimental to athletes’ health.

The WPIAL board meets Oct. 14.

Ineligible player reported

The WPIAL is waiting for more information from Baldwin about its alleged use of an ineligible football player.

Seltzer said Baldwin self-reported the use of an ineligible athlete in a preseason scrimmage. The issue was listed on the agenda for the WPIAL board meeting Monday. However, Seltzer said the WPIAL still was gathering information, so no action was taken.

The WPIAL must decide whether any league-imposed discipline is warranted.

In such situations, the WPIAL typically requests a report that details how a violation occurred, steps taken by the school’s administration to prevent its recurrence and any discipline handed down by the school district.

“We’re just trying to find out what consequences they may have or may not have (imposed),” Seltzer said. “Once we figure that out, we can either accept their proposal or say, ‘I don’t know if that’s enough.’ ”

Baldwin superintendent Randal Lutz declined comment.

WPIAL nixes incentive for hosts

Schools that host WPIAL playoff games could’ve received around $240 per event under a proposal that found little support from the board Monday.

Currently, profits from WPIAL football, basketball and soccer playoff games are shared with schools whose teams play in the tournaments. For the 2023-24 school year, that amounted to more than $165,000.

The board considered whether to instead use 20% of that total as an incentive for schools to host neutral-site games. However, WPIAL chief operating officer Vince Sortino said the WPIAL doesn’t have a shortage of schools willing to host, so the board decided the incentive was unnecessary.

Some schools do not charge the WPIAL a rental fee for using their facilities nowadays, whereas others do. The WPIAL pays the workers needed for playoff contests, including game operators, security and paramedics.

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: Baldwin