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Tuesday, October 29, 2002

By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

WPIAL Executive Director Larry Hanley and his mates were just about to adjourn yesterday afternoon. They had the league's playoff pairings set. Then a phone call forced the league to go back to the drawing board.

Central Catholic informed the WPIAL at 4 p.m. yesterday that it had withdrawn from the playoffs because of recent allegations that a sexual assault involving players occurred in the school's locker room in between preseason practices this summer.

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After the call, Hanley and the league's football steering committee made some changes to the Class AAAA bracket. With Central Catholic's departure, there were only 15 teams in the AAAA playoffs. So Woodland Hills was given a first-round bye.

Woodland Hills (9-0), the Post-Gazette's No. 1 Class AAAA team in the WPIAL and PIAA, will play the winner of the game Friday between McKeesport and Bethel Park.

In addition to giving Woodland Hills a bye, the WPIAL made some changes in first-round matchups. In the original bracket, Baldwin was going to play at Upper St. Clair in a first-round game and Seneca Valley was going to play at Gateway. But Baldwin will now play Gateway at East Allegheny, and Seneca Valley will play at Kiski Area. Although league officials wouldn't say, Woodland Hills probably would have played Latrobe. Now, Penn Hills will play Latrobe.

The Baldwin-Gateway game is at East Allegheny because Gateway does not have a press box.

After Central Catholic pulled out, Hanley said the steering committee considered adding another team. Central Catholic (6-3) qualified as the No. 3 team from the Quad East Conference. The top four teams make the playoffs and the league could have added Quad East fifth-place finisher Norwin.

"But we had no template for that," Hanley said. "We had no history of doing that. We had no way to decide what fifth-place team should be brought in.

"It would have been a knee-jerk reaction to bring someone in that we just decided on today."

Central Catholic officials informed the WPIAL yesterday morning there was a chance the Pittsburgh Diocese might make the team pull out of the playoffs. But Hanley said league officials didn't hear from Central Catholic again until 4 p.m.

"As the day went on, we didn't hear from [Central Catholic], so we had to go with the assumption they weren't out," Hanley said.

Last week, two Central Catholic players were arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old teammate during what police believe was a hazing incident that occurred Aug. 15.

Woodland Hills Coach George Novak doesn't like the idea of having a bye. One of the main reasons is his school will lose money. The Wolverines would have played a home game Friday.

"We lose the gate," Novak said. "I mean, we sold 3,000 tickets for our game last week at Penn Hills."

The WPIAL will consider giving Woodland Hills a home game in the quarterfinals.

"I don't know how to take a bye," Novak said. "It could be good because it gives our kids a chance to rest. The down side of the thing is we were going along pretty good."

Hanley said Central Catholic was seeded sixth or seventh in the original bracket. The Vikings played in the WPIAL title game last year, losing to Woodland Hills.

"Did it change everyone in the [Class AAAA] bracket? No," Hanley said. "Some of the bracket stayed identical. We maybe had to change four things in it."

Woodland Hills is seeded No. 1, Penn Hills is second, North Hills third and Upper St. Clair fourth in Class AAAA.

Also in Class AAAA, McKeesport won a coin toss with Canon-McMillan to gain the No. 2 seed in the Quad West Conference. McKeesport and Canon-McMillan had 5-1 records and also tied in Gardner Points and WPIAL tiebreaker points.

Kathy Yocca, who works in the WPIAL Green Tree office, flipped the coin to break the tie. By winning, McKeesport got a home game against Bethel Park. Canon-McMillan must play at North Allegheny.

The other No. 1 seeds are Thomas Jefferson (Class AAA), Jeannette (Class AA) and Rochester (Class A).