Committee to conduct hearing on tournaments

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A legislative committee that oversees the PIAA will have a public hearing next week to discuss the idea of separate championships for public and private schools, as well as other issues in Pennsylvania high school athletics.

The Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee has scheduled the hearing for Monday in Harrisburg, with members of the PIAA present. The oversight committee has three House members and three senators.

The issue of public vs. private/Catholic/charter schools has been a hot topic in high school sports for a number of years. But the complaints have become more numerous in the past few years and the critics have become louder recently because of the dominance of some private/Catholic/ charter schools in football and basketball.

Over the past three seasons, 69 percent of the PIAA boys and girls basketball champions have been teams from “non-boundary” schools. Critics believe private and charter schools have an unfair advantage because they do not have geographical boundaries to draw students. Public schools can only take students from a geographical district.

Many school superintendents, especially in Western Pennsylvania, have made it known in the past few months that they would like to see separate postseason tournaments for public schools and the others. In the WPIAL, 108 superintendents answered a survey and about 9 out of 10 said they wanted separate postseason tournaments.

Bob Lombardi, director of the PIAA, said state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks County called for the hearing. DiGirolamo is the chairman of the oversight committee.Lombardi said the reason for the hearing is to “discuss inquiries the general assembly has received about public and private schools, the changes in the transfer rule, and the competition classification formula.”

Will anything come from the hearing? That’s highly questionable. The oversight committee had a similar hearing last June.

Lombardi has said the PIAA is against having separate tournaments for public and private schools because of a 1972 law that made the PIAA accept Catholic and private schools. Lombardi has said the PIAA won’t have separate tournaments unless legislators call for the idea.

But critics say the old law is antiquated and was made during a different era of high school sports. For example, there were no charter school teams in 1972 and many Catholic schools used geographical boundaries back then. Plus, critics say the law doesn’t necessarily preclude the PIAA from having separate tournaments.

In an attempt to somewhat address the issue, the PIAA board of directors recently passed two rules on a first reading basis. The rules must pass two more readings before going into effect for the 2018-19 school year:

• Student-athletes who transfer high schools — public or private/Catholic/charter — any time after ninth grade will be ineligible for the postseason at their new school for one year. This rule would start in the 201819 school year and would not be retroactive to students who transferred at any point in the 2017-18 school year. Also, there would be exceptions to some who transfer for “exceptional and unusual” circumstances, and also for some who physically move.

• The PIAA has come up with a “competition success formula” for football and basketball only that could move schools up in classification if they have transfers and go far in the postseason. The formula would be counted the next two school years and would possibly affect a small number of teams’ classifications, starting with the 2020-21 school year.

In an email, Lombardi informed members of the PIAA board of directors about Monday’s hearing with the oversight committee. In the email, Lombardi said the PIAA will be requested to present actions the board of directors has taken to address some issues.

John Sarandrea, superintendent of New Castle Area School District, plans to attend the hearing. Sarandrea has been the leader in trying to unite superintendents across the state in asking for the PIAA to change the playoff systems for public and private schools.