A shortened schedule has prompted the WPIAL Wrestling Steering Committee to make significant changes to its section schedule for the 2008-09 season.

The PIAA has adopted a winter sports schedule that begins one week later, due in part to the extended length of the football season.

In response to the change, the PIAA cut two competition points from its schedule. That means schools will have only 22 points to schedule its dual meets and tournaments.

Each dual meet counts for one schedule point. Individual tournaments with up to eight teams count as two points. Individual tournaments with nine or more teams count as three points, as do one-day dual-meet tournaments. Two-day dual tournaments are four points.

The wrestling committee wanted to keep its current section alignment, but felt it would be a hardship on teams to schedule eight to 10 section matches in a six-week stretch. That's especially true because schools normally avoid scheduling section matches during the holiday period.

"We had to come up with a creative way to deal with the shortened season and cut in competition points," said Chartiers Valley athletic director Frank Vulcano Jr., a member of the WPIAL Wrestling Steering Committee. "There was no way we could schedule so many section matches with only five Wednesdays available."

The Wrestling Steering Committee's solution to this dilemma was to divide each section into two sub-sections, with either five or six teams in each.

"Each school must wrestle the schools in their sub-section," said Vulcano. "That means each school will wrestle only four or five section matches. Schools are not required to schedule teams from their other sub-section, but may choose to do so as a non-league match."

The section dual-meet schedule will conclude on Wed. Jan. 21 with a four-team playoff in each section to determine playoff seeding. The top two finishers from each sub-region will face off in a semifinal round at a site to be determined. A championship match and third-place consolation will also be wrestled that night, and neither round will count against the 22-point cutoff because it's designated as a qualifying round in the WPIAL team tournament.

"We're hoping the section playoffs will create some more interest," said Vulcano. "The winners of Sub-Section A will host the eight section playoffs this year, while the winners of Sub-Section B will have a chance to host next season."

The committee also decided to invite all four teams from each section playoff to the WPIAL team tournament, which will take place the following week. The prior setup had only the top three teams from each section qualifying.

That means 20 teams will participate in the Class AAA tournament, while 12 qualify in Class AA.

"The committee came to me with three or four different ideas and had me poll some of the coaches to see which idea they liked the best," said Fox Chapel coach Ron Frank, who is also president of the WPIAL Wrestling Coaches Association.

"The coaches I talked to felt this was the most imaginative idea. I was glad the committee wanted an opinion from the people in the trenches."

Coaches and their athletic directors are scrambling to set their upcoming schedules, as the WPIAL was to release its section schedule yesterday.

The Class AAA alignment has increased to 51 teams with the addition of Derry Area and South Allegheny. Derry returns to Class AAA after a six-year stint in Class AA. South Allegheny moved up due to its co-operative agreement with Serra Catholic.

Class AA will have 32 teams, including South Fayette. The Lions have resurrected their varsity program after a nine-year hiatus.

"Moving up should not be a problem," Derry coach Mike Wood said. "We have everybody back, plus we pick up two talented kids moving up from the junior high.

"I like the new alignment because it gives us a lot of scheduling flexibility. I will have to sit down with my athletic director and see what our options are."

Coaches and their athletic directors are scrambling to set their upcoming schedules, as the WPIAL was to release its section schedule yesterday.

"We are currently entered in three tournaments, but may add a fourth now that we have some scheduling flexibility," Greater Latrobe coach Marc Billett said. "I also like the idea that they kept the sections together for the individual tournament. If they split us into six sections [instead of five], they would have probably cut the number of section qualifiers to three."

Coaches across the state were concerned that the reduction in competition points would force teams to cut a regular-season tournament or multiple non-league dual meets.

"I'm not really sure what to think," Kiski Area coach Chuck Tursky said. "In my 30 years of coaching, I've never seen anything like this.

"I don't like the idea of losing two [scheduling] points, but you get them back if you are one of the four teams in the section playoffs. We could add another tournament to our schedule, but will most likely add some dual meets with teams with whom we are competitive."