West A enters coach Palko’s final postseason as 5th seed in strong Class 5A bracket

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | 1:33 AM

Almost every year since 1997, Bob Palko has made the trek to Green Tree for the WPIAL pairings meeting.

This, though, should be his last.

The coach with the most titles in WPIAL history shook a number of hands at the DoubleTree on Monday night.

“Some guys are saying, ‘I didn’t think you’d do it,’ but it’s time,” said the West Allegheny coach, who has plans to resign at season’s end. “I’d love to make a run. But if we get beat next week, I’m going to go visit my grandkids.”

Palko owns eight WPIAL titles.

His Indians were seeded fifth in Class 5A when the WPIAL playoff brackets were revealed Monday night, which maybe seemed a spot lower than expected for the co-champions of the Allegheny Eight. Mars, the second-place team from the Northern Conference, earned the fourth seed.

Both spots are in the same quarter of the bracket.

“What’s the difference if you’re four or five?” Palko said. “I don’t think it really matters. I’ve never really got bent out of shape about that stuff. … You’re going to have to go through Gateway anyways, so what’s the difference?”

The defending WPIAL champion Gators (10-0) drew the No. 1 seed, undefeated Penn Hills (10-0) was second and Peters Township (9-1) was third in a deep Class 5A field.

After that, the fourth, fifth and sixth seeds were debated at length, said football committee chairman Randy Rovesti, athletic director at Gateway. Penn-Trafford, a second-place team from the Big East, received the sixth seed.

McKeesport is seventh, and Bethel Park is eighth.

“When you get down to it, the one and two are pretty easy,” Rovesti said. “Four, five, six, seven — there’s merit for all of them.”

The WPIAL announced brackets for all six classifications with few surprises overall.

As expected, the other No. 1 seeds were awarded to North Allegheny in Class 6A, Thomas Jefferson in 4A, Aliquippa in 3A, Shady Side Academy in 2A and Jeannette in A.

The Class 5A championship is Nov. 23 at Norwin. The Class 2A final is Nov. 24 at Robert Morris. The Class 6A, 4A, 3A and A finals are Nov. 17 at Heinz Field.

The eight-team brackets went together with little effort and the six-team Class 6A bracket was almost automatic, Rovesti said. But the committee labored longer on 5A and 2A, which maintain larger 16-team brackets.

“The top teams you can figure out and the bottom teams you can figure out,” Rovesti said. “The ones in the middle, there’s a lot of discussion.”

Mars’ lone loss was to Penn Hills, 36-15, in Week 3. West Allegheny lost 42-28 to conference co-champion Peters Township in Week 3, but also needed to squeak out several conference wins.

West A defeated Bethel Park, 36-35, Woodland Hills, 14-13, Baldwin, 29-26, and Moon, 7-0.

“We’ve had some injuries but we’re winning,” Palko said. “Ugly wins are better than pretty losses.”

Overall, the committee preferred Mars’ resume.

“Mars was 9-1 and I don’t think got a whole lot of respect during the year,” Rovesti said. “When you go 9-1, that’s pretty good. That was debated. West A is pretty good too, but at the end of the day, somebody has to get the four and somebody has to get the five.”

There also were voices in the room wanting to push one-loss Penn-Trafford higher than sixth.

“They got better as the year went along,” Rovesti said. “They got the sixth seed, but they have the capability to do some damage.”

Rovesti said it helped that the football committee has two other members also associated with Class 5A schools: McKeesport athletic director Charley Kiss and Franklin Regional athletic director Zach Kessler. The committee met for about four hours Monday afternoon.

“What makes (the process) nice is we disagree, but we never become disagreeable,” Rovesti said of the 14-member football committee. “At the end people will talk it out, and then we vote.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: West Allegheny