The times sure are changing in WPIAL football.

But we're not talking style of play. We're talking the starting times of Friday night games.

Many teams in the WPIAL have decided to change their game times for this season to 7 p.m. For decades, just about all teams in the league started games at 7:30. Heck, if you go back 30 years or so, many teams started games at 8 p.m.

A random sampling of 20 WPIAL schools showed about half are switching to 7 p.m. starts. They are Belle Vernon, Chartiers Valley, Elizabeth Forward, Hopewell, Montour, Ringgold, West Allegheny, Center, Cornell and New Brighton.

"We're going to try it this year and see how it works," Elizabeth Forward Athletic Director Kerry Hetrick said. "If we find it's not a good thing, we certainly can look at moving it back."

According to some athletic directors, the main reason some schools want to start earlier is simple.

"The No. 1 reason is games are just ending later nowadays," Hopewell athletic director Don Short said. "You've got a lot of games nowadays that end between 10 and 10:30."

High school football games do indeed last longer than they used to decades ago. One main reason is that teams throw much more these days. That means more incomplete passes, which means the clock stops more often.

Also, a few years ago, a high school rule across the country added time to games. On any change of possessions, the clock stops until the ball is snapped for the next play. The rule used to be that the clock would start immediately when the official spotted the ball after a change of possession.

"You figure if you have an away game that might be 45 minutes away," Short said. "It ends after 10. By the time the team gets dressed, gets on the bus, gets home, packs all their stuff away, there are kids driving on the road at 11:30 or so. Kids with junior licenses aren't supposed to be driving that late."

Hetrick said, "One of the main reasons we're doing it is the JV games. A lot of teams play their JV games Saturday mornings. Sometimes the JV kids [who dress for varsity games] are getting home late at night and then they have to get up early and travel to a JV game the next morning."

Hetrick said the coaches in the Class AAA Big Seven Conference discussed the 7 p.m. starts a year ago and most of the schools in the conference decided to make the switch.

A drawback to 7 p.m. starts might be for the fans. Those who work 9 to 5 jobs might have a little more trouble going home, picking up some family members and heading to an away game.

But actually, the WPIAL is behind the times in going to 7 p.m. games. The majority of teams in every other district in the state already were playing 7 p.m. games.

USA Football recently researched where all of the players in the 2009 NFL draft attended high school, and Pennsylvania finished 12th with seven players drafted.

The top two states in producing players for this year's draft were Texas (37 players) and California (32). Florida (19), Ohio (16) and Georgia (13) rounded out the top five.

What is interesting is that New Jersey produced seven first-round picks this year, one more than Texas. Twelve schools had two players selected, including O Perry Walker High in New Orleans, which produced Steelers draft picks Keenan Lewis and Mike Wallace.

While Pennsylvania didn't produce many draft picks this year, the state was seventh in the previous 20 NFL drafts, behind only California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Louisiana.

Fourteen years ago, Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley jokingly sent a recruiting letter to Tom Ricketts, who was 3 at the time. Bradley knew Ricketts' father, Tom II, and sent the letter to be funny. Bradley wrote how Penn State was interested in young Tom and how he needed to do his baby exercises.

The funny thing is 14 years later Bradley recruited the younger Ricketts for real -- and got him. Ricketts, who will be a senior lineman at North Allegheny in the fall, made a verbal commitment to Penn State two weeks ago.

South Fayette pitcher Dillon Haviland has apparently opened the eyes of scouts this season. South Fayette coach James Barton believes the 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior left-hander could go fairly high in the Major League Baseball draft next season.

"He'll get drafted, hands down," Barton said.

"I'm dealing with a lot of professional baseball people who have come to watch him. I think he could go in the first four or five rounds next year. He's the real deal. Plus, he's only 16, so he should really be in 10th grade."

• Seton-LaSalle pitcher Derek Law and three other WPIAL players taken in the Major League Baseball draft will all play in the WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Games today at the Burkett Complex in Robinson. Law was selected in the 28th round. The other three are Riverview outfielder Gus Benusa (8th round), South Park outfielder Terran Senay (38th) and Neshannock catcher Ben Bechtol (40th).

The Class A all-stars play Class AA at 1 p.m. Class AAA meets Class AAAA at 4.

• North Allegheny's Corky Semler has been selected the Pennsylvania Class AAA boys' swimming coach of the year.

• A girl in Texas won the state track and field team championship by herself for the second year in a row. Bonnie Richardson was the only girl from tiny Rochelle High School to participate at the Class A (smallest class) championship. She won the long jump and high jump, was second in the discus, third in the 200 meters and fourth in the 100.