The WPIAL's basketball playoff field will grow next season.
The WPIAL approved realignments for boys' and girls' basketball yesterday, and one of the major changes was the number of teams that will qualify for the playoffs. In Class AAAA, AAA and A, the top four teams in each section will qualify. In the past, only the top three teams qualified.
In Class AA, only the top three teams in each section will make the playoffs.
The main reason for the change is the WPIAL will have only four sections in Class AAAA instead of the usual five. If the WPIAL took three teams from each section to the playoffs, only 12 teams would qualify.
"We wanted to make it a full bracket with 16 teams," said WPIAL Executive Director Larry Hanley. "With only 32 teams in Quad-A, you just don't have enough to put together five reasonable sections."
After deciding to take four teams from each section to the playoffs in Class AAAA, the WPIAL decided it should also take four in Class AAA and A. Those two classifications also have only four sections.
Class AA, however, will have six sections and, by taking the top three teams, 18 will qualify for the playoffs.
Among other changes, the Baldwin boys' and girls' teams will be in Section 2 and play the likes of Franklin Regional, Gateway, McKeesport, Plum and Penn Hills. In the past, Baldwin had played in Section 5 against teams from the South Hills area, such as Upper St. Clair, Mt. Lebanon and Chartiers Valley.
"If you really look at it in terms of the sections, who was the most likely candidate to be moved? Baldwin," Hanley said. "Somebody had to go into that section, and geographically Baldwin seemed like the best fit."
Cashman address
PIAA Executive Director Brad Cashman addressed WPIAL athletic directors yesterday about how "the landscape of Pennsylvania athletics is changing" because of the addition of Philadelphia Public Schools in the 2004-05 school year.
In May, the PIAA will vote on new football and basketball playoff brackets. The WPIAL will be greatly affected by the new PIAA brackets in Class AAAA boys' and girls' basketball. Only six WPIAL teams will make the PIAA playoffs. In the past few years, 10 WPIAL teams have qualified in Class AAAA.
Also, Cashman said the PIAA might petition the National Federation of State High School Associations to trim the number of weight classes in wrestling from 14 to 12.
Scholarship winners
The WPIAL announced its four scholar-athlete winners who will receive $5,000 scholarships. They are Lauren Burdelsky of Brentwood, Beverly Rogers of Ringgold, Fritz Woelfel of Shady Side Academy and Frendon Steele of Canon-McMillan. They will be honored at a luncheon later this month.
The WPIAL will also give $500 scholarships to 16 other scholar-athletes.
First Published: April 22, 2004, 4:00 a.m.