1A Imani will move to 6A for basketball
PIAA reveals ‘play up’ list for 2024-26
The PIAA on Wednesday released a list of high school teams from across the state that have chosen to play up in classification for the next two years, and the biggest surprise on the list is a tiny WPIAL school that has decided to play in the largest class for boys basketball.
Imani Christian, which won WPIAL and PIAA Class 1A championships last season, will play Class 6A boys basketball for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. Imani made this move despite being the fourthsmallest school in WPIAL boys basketball. The PIAA makes classifications based on the number of students currently in grades 9-11.
Imani Christian has only 33 boys in those three grades.
Teams can choose to play “up” voluntarily. They can’t play down in class.
“To put it in a nutshell, what we’re trying to do is get our players the proper exposure,” Imani Christian athletic director Cliff Simon said. “We preach competitiveness and this will be a good measuring stick. … There are all kinds of trains of thought as to why we do this type of move. Kennedy Catholic did the same thing a few years ago.
“It’s just for a two-year period. We just felt we could compete for the next couple years.”
Kennedy Catholic won three consecutive PIAA Class 1A titles in 2016-18 and then voluntarily moved up to 6A and won the state championship in that classification in 2019. But Kennedy Catholic had key players who transferred into the school in those few years. A couple were from other countries. One was Oscar Tshiebwe, who went on to be a star player in college and now is on the NBA’s Indiana Pacers roster.
Imani Christian has had numerous critics in recent years, from fans to coaches, because they don’t have geographic boundaries to draw students. Imani Christian’s basketball team also has had a few key players transfer to the school in recent years. But two of the team’s top players from last season — Alier Maluk and Dame Givner — transferred to out- of- state schools.
Word of Imani Christian’s move to 6A was already out and some have wondered privately how a school that size can compete in 6A without bringing in players?
“The process that we’re dealing with, we’re trying to build within,” Simon said. “We’re trying to have middle school kids and have what we could call a program. We’re trying to get rid of that ‘transfer university’ label.”
Imani Christian’s football team also would be in Class 1A next season, but has elected to play in Class 3A for the next two years.
Some other notable WPIAL teams have chosen to play up in classification. Central Catholic’s enrollment would place the school’s football team in Class 5A, but the Vikings will stay in Class 6A. The school’s baseball team also will play up in 6A.
Union, which won the WPIAL Class 1A football championship in 2022, has decided to play in Class 2A.
The Upper St. Clair boys and girls basketball teams would be in Class 5A, but both will stay in Class 6A.
In the City League, Allderdice boys basketball team would be 5A for the PIAA playoffs, but the Dragons have decided to remain in Class 6A.
Connellsville out of WPIAL?
Another team might be dropping out of the WPIAL for football and play an independent schedule.
Connellsville’s school board will vote Wednesday night on whether to exit the WPIAL for football only. Butler, Albert Gallatin, Brownsville and Uniontown have all dropped out of the WPIAL for football in recent years because they struggled to compete. Butler is reconsidering coming back to the WPIAL, but hasn’t made a final decision yet.
Connellsville was 5-5 this season, its first .500 season since 2011. Connellsville played in Class 4A the past two seasons, but will be 5A next season. The Falcons struggled mightily in Class 5A from 2016-21 , going 7-52. In fact, Connellsville has mostly struggled since the turn of the century.
A strong program for much of the 1980s and ’90s, Connellsville hasn’t had a winning season since 1998. Since 2005, Connellsville has won two or less games 14 times.