Census figures show Beaver County's population has shrunk 16 percent since 1970.

Drive north along the Ohio River and the main reason for the county's demise is quite evident. Once vibrant steel mills are no longer in operation.

But one part of Beaver County is still thriving. Drive to the North Shore tomorrow, and it will be evident on the lawn inside Heinz Field.

High school football is as good as ever in Beaver County, and the WPIAL championships are heavily populated with Beaver County teams.

Four of the eight teams that will play in the title games tomorrow at Heinz are from that county. They are Blackhawk, Aliquippa, Beaver Falls and Monaca. That's pretty impressive when you consider there are only 14 high schools in Beaver County and none play in the WPIAL's largest classification (Class AAAA).

This is the first time four Beaver County schools have played in the championships since 1991.

But the title games this year aren't evidence of a resurgence in Beaver County football. They are simply more examples of how a 434-square mile area (Beaver County) keeps producing winning teams -- and standout players -- at a high rate.

Consider the evidence:

• The WPIAL started using four classifications in 1980. Since then, Allegheny County schools have won 33 championships in the three smallest classes (A, AA and AAA). Beaver County is only two behind with 31. And Allegheny County has 32 high schools in A, AA and AAA, while Beaver County has 14. Also, Westmoreland County has 13 high schools and has won nine WPIAL titles since 1980.

For the sake of comparison, you can throw out Class AAAA championships because Beaver County doesn't have an AAAA team.

• In the past 10 seasons, 12 of the 14 Beaver County teams have made it to at least the WPIAL semifinals. In the past 25 seasons, 13 different Beaver County teams have made it to a championship game. The only one that hasn't is Freedom.

• Over the past 20 seasons, 34 of the 60 championship games in the three smallest classes have had at least one Beaver County team.

The 14 Beaver County high schools are Aliquippa, Ambridge, Beaver, Beaver Falls, Blackhawk, Center, Freedom, Hopewell, Monaca, New Brighton, Riverside, Rochester, South Side Beaver and Western Beaver (some of the Ellwood City district is in Beaver County, but the school is in Lawrence County)

"I think the championship thing is indicative of the kind of people that still live in this county," said Don Yannessa, who recently retired as Ambridge's coach.

Yannessa is a good one to compare Beaver County football with other areas because he has seen football inside and outside of Beaver County. He played and coached at Aliquippa and also coached Ambridge. But he spent more than a decade coaching Baldwin High, a Class AAAA program in Pittsburgh's south suburbs.

"What's the difference between Beaver County and some other areas? One, high school sports are just not as important in a lot of other areas like they are in this county," said Yannessa, who lives in Center. "High school football is ingrained into the fiber of the people in this county. Basketball doesn't take much of a backseat, either.

"But, to a lot of people in this county, their priorities are God, their country, their family and then football."

Beaver Falls' Joe Namath, Aliquippa's Mike Ditka and Aliquippa's Ty Law are some well-known players from Beaver County who played on WPIAL-title-winning teams in yesteryear. Namath won one in 1960, although Beaver Falls was the only undefeated team that year, so it was awarded the championship without playing a title game.

Ditka was a junior tight end-linebacker on Aliquippa's 1955 WPIAL championship team that beat Mt. Lebanon. Law was a slotback-defensive back on the Aliquippa's 1991 championship team.

Former Hopewell running back Tony Dorsett is another Beaver County great, but his teams didn't make the WPIAL playoffs.

Today, kids such as Blackhawk's Zack Hayward, Beaver Falls' Todd Thomas, Aliquippa's Rasheen Jones and Monaca's Tony Reda will try to join Namath, Ditka, Law and many others in Beaver County championship lore.

Blackhawk coach Joe Hamilton and many others believe Beaver County teams are successful often times because of the small-town atmosphere that exists at many of the schools. Hamilton is a Beaver High graduate and has coached at three different Beaver County schools during his 43-year head-coaching career.

"It's still the same here as when the steel mills were booming, but now just on a smaller basis," Hamilton said. "Even though the mills are gone and things have changed, you still have the same type of person living here."

Aliquippa coach Mike Zmijanac is an Aliquippa graduate.

"It's that old mill-town mentality," Zmijanac said. "People still have the work ethic and the attitude about being successful with whatever you do, and that rubs off on the kids."

"I think you can compare it with some of the Mon Valley towns. Look at Clairton. They're still successful. Duquesne was, too, until it closed. And even though there are some more suburban communities here like Blackhawk and Center, they have the same mentality because some Aliquippa people grow up and move to Center, and some Beaver Falls people grow up and move to Chippewa [Blackhawk].

"You look at a lot of the names of the players at schools here. A lot of them are the same ones as years ago, just a different generation."

Beaver County ties seem hard to break, too. Former Aliquippa star Darrelle Revis, now with the New York Jets, called Zmijanac after the Quips beat Shady Side Academy in the WPIAL semifinals.

But there are some who say sports are too important at some Beaver County high schools, sometimes at the expense of academics.

"Nothing is too important if that's what you enjoy and support," Zmijanac said. "It's not too important to get good grades. It's not too important to behave the right way. So why would something that's successful and good, like football, be too important?

"Towns like Aliquippa and some other places, what else do they have? We're just little schools with great tradition who enjoy the heck out of Western Pennsylvania football."