John Heller, Post-Gazette Schenley's DeJuan Blair scores high enough on his SAT to be eligible to play for the Pitt Panthers next season.

Many have achieved fame during the 100-year history of the WPIAL. Now, the league is ready to put some of them in a Hall of Fame.

The league has decided to start the WPIAL Hall of Fame and is trying to make it a big deal. The inaugural class will be announced at a news conference in May. Inductees will be honored at a banquet June 22 at the Embassy Suites in Moon.

"In an attempt to bring some closure to our 100-year anniversary this year, we felt it was time to look back and honor those who have been in our league and done some instrumental things," said Tim O'Malley, WPIAL executive director.

Hall of Fame members will be listed on a plaque or trophy at the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum inside the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

WPIAL administrative assistant Jim Collins heads a committee that will select Hall of Fame members from five categories -- athletes, coaches, officials, contributors and teams. The committee plans to induct 15 or 16 individuals/teams each year.

But there is a catch to the selections. The committee can choose only those nominated by member schools. The member schools were allowed just one nomination.

But only a little more than 50 percent of the WPIAL schools nominated an athlete, coach or team.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive as much feedback as we wanted, but we believe that will change after the first year," O'Malley said. "We still had many high-quality nominations. ... The selection process is modeled after the National Federation's Hall of Fame."

For ticket information to the banquet, call the WPIAL at 412-921-7181.

Two for The Show

It's not often two baseball players from the same WPIAL team make it to the major leagues. But it happened this year.

Mt. Lebanon graduates Josh Wilson and Don Kelly are both on major-league rosters. Wilson is a shortstop with the Washington Nationals and Kelly a second baseman with the Pirates.

Kelly is a 1998 Mt Lebanon graduate and Wilson graduated a year later. They both played on Mt. Lebanon's 1998 PIAA Class AAA championship team.

No records exist to show how many times two players from the same WPIAL team made it to the major leagues. One team that comes to mind is the 1983 Beaver Bobcats who won the WPIAL Class AAA championship. Two pitchers from that team made it to the major leagues -- John Burkett and Doug Piatt.

Blair eligible

Schenley basketball star DeJuan Blair recently scored high enough on the SAT to be eligible as a freshman at Pitt. Blair signed with the Panthers last November.

"I don't want to be cocky about next year," Blair said about his expectations at Pitt. "I just hope I can help them."

Elsewhere in Schenley recruiting, Georgia is now showing interest in senior guard D.J. Kennedy. He plans to visit Virginia Tech and possibly Xavier.

Schenley senior point guard Jamaal "Onion" Bryant might visit Toledo.

Charter schools rising

Philadelphia Prep Charter won the past two PIAA Class AA boys' basketball championships and defeated Imhotep Institute Charter in this year's semifinals. Maybe you should get used to seeing charter schools making impacts in basketball.

According to a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story, enrollment in Philadelphia public schools is down 40,681 from 1997-98 (211,051 then to 174,370 this school year).

In 1997-98, Philadelphia had only four publicly-funded, independently-run charter schools that had less than 1,000 students.

This school year, the city has 56 charter schools with more than 29,000 students.

Charter for WPIAL

Next season, the WPIAL will have a boys' basketball team from a charter school.

The PIAA recently accepted Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center into the organization. Lincoln Park is a charter school in Midland (Beaver County) and will have only a boys' basketball team next season that will play in Class A of the WPIAL.

Lincoln Park will play in the refurbished gym that was once the home of the Midland High Leopards, a program that produced a number of great WPIAL teams.

Nicholas Trombetta is the chief executive officer of Lincoln Park and also runs the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. However, only those who physically attend Lincoln Park will be eligible to play basketball. Cyber School students are not eligible.

However, a male student who attends Lincoln Park and lives in another school district can play sports other than basketball at his home district's school, because Lincoln Park has only basketball.

For example, a Lincoln Park male student who lives in Ambridge could play football at Ambridge, basketball at Lincoln Park and baseball at Ambridge.