Making Single A Fun Again

[animus]

When Clairton was on it's run, people wanted Clairton to play up, people still wants to see the Bears play in 2A or even 3A.

I'll agree with the one BG fan on the formula to success of having 1/3 of the boys playing football. In Clairton's it's a little over 1/3rd of the 61 boys in the school. But to add to that, having successful peewee teams with solid coaches benefits the overall program alot. A bulk of the coaches throughout Clairton's programs, from peewee to HS, played Div 1 & 2 college football and some professional experience. Kids as young as 10 have film sessions to view what they're doing wrong from a technical standpoint. On top of that, passing camps have helped out a ton. If I'm the Portage, or whatever random school, head coach, I'd be getting into the Pitt, PSU, and Maryland's passing camp. I'll finish this by stating, if you're a public school, and not one of the final 12 teams, and not in the weightroom preparing for 2018, you need to hush about the Catholic schools.

[guru1]

If and when the PIAA decides to do something different with how they align their teams, playing where you are placed based off your enrollment is the right thing to do. There's no added incentive to play above your enrollment for anyone, unless it makes your regular season travel more manageable, like it does for Aliquippa.

Pawning off small private schools in class A to AA doesn't solve the problem that some people think exists, does it?  

This argument has been beat to death...and I get where you are coming from....but seriously...you really don't see an issue with a school in a 4A school district and 6A school district (BM and BG) who play in a  mostly 3A/4A conference all year being 1A for playoffs? And I know the argument will be neither won this year.....thats fine. They won't win every single year but to say its completely fair is very narrow minded. That said...you are 100% right on one thing....the PIAA needs to address the issue. If they are going to allow it you cannot blame the teams for doing it but still.....

[animus]

If and when the PIAA decides to do something different with how they align their teams, playing where you are placed based off your enrollment is the right thing to do. There's no added incentive to play above your enrollment for anyone, unless it makes your regular season travel more manageable, like it does for Aliquippa.

Pawning off small private schools in class A to AA doesn't solve the problem that some people think exists, does it?  

This argument has been beat to death...and I get where you are coming from....but seriously...you really don't see an issue with a school in a 4A school district and 6A school district (BM and BG) who play in a  mostly 3A/4A conference all year being 1A for playoffs? And I know the argument will be neither won this year.....thats fine. They won't win every single year but to say its completely fair is very narrow minded. That said...you are 100% right on one thing....the PIAA needs to address the issue. If they are going to allow it you cannot blame the teams for doing it but still.....

At the same time, you have 1A public schools playing schedules akin to BG and playing in the 1A playoffs. If anything I wished the WPIAL set up our leagues akin to the Mid-Penn. If Steel High can play in a league consisting of 3A-5A schools why can't Clairton, Rochester and Jeannette play in leagues of a similar setup. Plus that would give Aliquippa the best of both worlds in playing their traditional rivals and still competing for a 1A championship. I don't fault BG for their schedule and dropping to 1A for the playoffs. They'r playing within the system and how it's built in PA and as well as the bulk of the small schools across the country. 

[konjo78]

I still say, split each class into 6 team divisions. 5 division games and 5 out of division games. That way results for playoffs can be decided by playing teams your own class level but you can have more local games or higher caliber teams you can schedule them your 2nd 5

[stangin80]

When Clairton was on it's run, people wanted Clairton to play up, people still wants to see the Bears play in 2A or even 3A.

I'll agree with the one BG fan on the formula to success of having 1/3 of the boys playing football. In Clairton's it's a little over 1/3rd of the 61 boys in the school. But to add to that, having successful peewee teams with solid coaches benefits the overall program alot. A bulk of the coaches throughout Clairton's programs, from peewee to HS, played Div 1 & 2 college football and some professional experience.  Kids as young as 10 have film sessions to view what they're doing wrong from a technical standpoint. On top of that, passing camps have helped out a ton. If I'm the Portage, or whatever random school, head coach, I'd be getting into the Pitt, PSU, and Maryland's passing camp. I'll finish this by stating, if you're a public school, and not one of the final 12 teams, and not in the weightroom preparing for 2018, you need to hush about the Catholic schools.

I agree with you on a lot of levels here animus, especially Portage going to passing camp to balance their offense..! But, .Hypothetically speaking, We’ll say Clairton, with all the work ethics, passing camps, and good coaching and still not making it out of Districts.? It would have been a travesty not seeing the Wades and Boyd’s of the world not making the state tournament.. 

[animus]

I still say, split each class into 6 team divisions. 5 division games and 5 out of division games. That way results for playoffs can be decided by playing teams your own class level but you can have more local games or higher caliber teams you can schedule them your 2nd 5

I'll say that this is a good idea on paper, but a terrible idea in practice. You could end up with years where a Greensburg Central is playing in a division consisting of four schools from D5 or a school from D5 playing in a division of Jeannette, GCC, Serra Catholic,  and Clairton. Then in Triple A a school like Somerset could end up in a division with Uniontown, Yough, Waynesburg, and Elizabeth Forward. There also could be cases where a nice cluster of 5 schools gets split up, thus adding unneded travel. 
If this plan was to become reality, I could see this being the final straw for the WPIAL and them leaving the PIAA. 

[animus]

When Clairton was on it's run, people wanted Clairton to play up, people still wants to see the Bears play in 2A or even 3A.

I'll agree with the one BG fan on the formula to success of having 1/3 of the boys playing football. In Clairton's it's a little over 1/3rd of the 61 boys in the school. But to add to that, having successful peewee teams with solid coaches benefits the overall program alot. A bulk of the coaches throughout Clairton's programs, from peewee to HS, played Div 1 & 2 college football and some professional experience.  Kids as young as 10 have film sessions to view what they're doing wrong from a technical standpoint. On top of that, passing camps have helped out a ton. If I'm the Portage, or whatever random school, head coach, I'd be getting into the Pitt, PSU, and Maryland's passing camp. I'll finish this by stating, if you're a public school, and not one of the final 12 teams, and not in the weightroom preparing for 2018, you need to hush about the Catholic schools.

I agree with you on a lot of levels here animus, especially Portage going to passing camp to balance their offense..! But, .Hypothetically speaking, We’ll say Clairton, with all the work ethics, passing camps, and good coaching and still not making it out of Districts.? It would have been a travesty not seeing the Wades and Boyd’s of the world not making the state tournament.. 

I wasn't trying to pick on Portage, they was the first school that came to mind. Having players like Boyd and Wade helps, but it was their work ethic that got them as good as they were and currently are. 
As for Clairton missing states this year, I'd say not getting out of districts 2 out of 10 years is a pretty good track record. 

[stangin80]

Agreeing with you here..the passing point was for someone in Portage to see.
The point I was making hypothetical was if Clairton had to meet up with BG in districts..Congrats to Clairton on their successful program!

[animus]

The Wade teams would've struggled getting out of states and a bounce here and a bound there that 14 team could've gotten past BG. Who knows about this year's edition considering neither got out of their district. Those Boyd teams with Webb, Howard, Coles would've won every district in the state (class a) during their run. I would've liked to see the Clairton 2012 edition take on those Hyno SCA teams or the 2015 BG. Would've been some great matchups. Those SCA teams were incredible.

[Goldeneagles12]

That would have been great. The speed and agility of Boyd and crew against the just raw brute strength of Hynoski and crew.