West/North Xtra: WPIAL has its playoff plan ready
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When baseball slugger Reggie Jackson played for the Yankees, he was known as Mr. October. Dan O'Neil is the WPIAL's Mr. February.
O'Neil, a Beaver County resident and the athletic director at Deer Lakes High School, is the chairman of the WPIAL Basketball Steering Committee, the folks who put together the brackets for and help run the league's boys and girls basketball tournaments.
The WPIAL unveiled the brackets for this year's playoffs Tuesday night at the annual pairings meeting at the Doubletree Hotel in Green Tree. The playoffs get underway Friday with preliminary round and first-round games and there are 26 games on Saturday.
The WPIAL will play 155 games on 10 dates.
The tournament wraps up with the championship games at Duquesne University's Palumbo Center March 2-3.
On Monday, members of the basketball committee got together to seed the tournament and put together the brackets. Do not believe for one minute that O'Neil walked into that meeting room cold turkey.
Since at least the first of the year O'Neil has been checking out section standings, looking at team schedules and following results online and in the newspapers. He has had his computer fired up and each week has typed in which teams he thinks should be seeded where in each classification.
"I see some teams, but as I talk to other athletic directors I try to get a feel for other teams and I check out everybody's rankings," O'Neil said. "I go in with who I think should be seeded where and that gives up a jumping off point."
It helps that O'Neil has some old hands on the committee such as former Kiski Area and Valley athletic director Harry Orbin, current Elizabeth Forward athletic director Dennis Zieger, Hampton athletic director Bill Cardone and Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan. Orbin, who used to coach at Springdale, and Zieger, who coached at Southmoreland High School, have been on the committee for 20 years.
This is O'Neil's 10th year on the steering committee, fourth as the chairman. He was the boys head coach at New Brighton, leading the Lions to a WPIAL Class AAA runner-up spot in 1989. New Brighton was the Class AA runner-up in '90.
"It helps having some of the older [committee] members around because they understand the process," said O'Neil, who was the athletic director at Beaver before going to Deer Lakes. "The people on the committee take it seriously. Everybody gives their input and there is very little politics in that room."
He added that a team's entire body of work in the regular season is considered, not just section contests. Teams that played a tougher non-section schedule and did well in those contests tend to be seeded ahead of others, even though they might have the same overall record.
First Published February 16, 2012 12:00 am
