Penn Hills football learns Class 5A conference foes

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, January 20, 2018 | 10:54 AM

Last month, the Penn Hills athletic department decided to be classified in Class 5A in football, basketball, baseball and softball under the new WPIAL realignment for the 2018 and '19 seasons.

The Indians found out last week which football teams will join them in their conference.

Penn Hills was part of Class 6A's Northern Seven the last two seasons, which included Pine-Richland, Central Catholic, North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Butler and Shaler.

The Indians now will be part of a Class 5A conference composed of Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Hampton, Kiski Area, Mars, North Hills and Shaler.

“I was hoping to get in a conference little closer to home to restore some of the rivalries. I'm not sure what the nonconference schedule is going to look like. I hope we can restore some of those rivalries with Gateway, Woodland Hills and McKeesport,” football coach Jon LeDonne said.

The Indians are hopeful the WPIAL football committee will decide to have two nonconference games with local rivals to prepare them for the new conference and playoffs.

In Class 5A, the committee divided the 24 teams into three eight-team conferences. The conferences are geographically friendly, with most road trips needing fewer than 30 miles.

“We heard the committee decided the sections based off of geography. When we put teams on a map, there's not much control you can have over that. I think they tried their best to figure out travel time,” athletic director Stephanie Strauss said.

Last season, the Indians (8-4, 3-3) finished fourth in the Northern Seven behind state champion Pine-Richland, Central Catholic and North Allegheny. Shaler finished 0-10, 0-6 last season.

The Indians will look to be the class of their new conference. Fox Chapel is coming off a 6-5, 5-3 season in the Class 5A Allegheny Nine, and North Hills (5-5, 4-4) and Hampton (2-8, 2-6) also will come over from the Allegheny Nine.

Armstrong (6-4, 4-4) and Kiski Area (1-9, 1-7) join from the Class 5A Big East, and Mars (6-5, 5-3) jumps up from the Class 4A Northwest Nine.

“I think they looked to split some of the traditional powers up. Each conference is set up with good teams in them. I'm looking forward to the season,” LeDonne said.

The Penn Hills boys and girls soccer programs also found out last week how the realignment affects them.

Starting next fall, the boys soccer program will be part of Section 3-AAAA, which has familiar section foes Plum and Woodland Hills as well as newcomers Connellsville, Hempfield, Latrobe, Norwin and Penn-Trafford.

The new section will not include Allderdice, Brashear, Central Catholic and Fox Chapel.

For the girls soccer program, the Indians will be in Section 3-AAAA with only one carryover in Allderdice and will be joined by Connellsville, Hempfield, Latrobe, Norwin and Penn-Trafford.

Brashear, Fox Chapel, Plum and Woodland Hills are not in the new section.

“It's going to be a tougher section. We won't have many games that won't challenge us. It's going to be challenging week-to-week, and it's going to make our teams even better,” Strauss said.

The Indians girls volleyball team will belong to Section 3-4A with Connellsville, Hempfield, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford and Plum.

Realignment didn't affect the boys golf, girls tennis, cross country and track programs, but the boys volleyball program will lose Gateway in the new Section 3-3A.

The boys volleyball team faces Armstrong, Hempfield, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford and Plum.

Updated alignments for winter sports and the remaining spring sports will be finalized in February and March.

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn Hills