District 11 to go ahead with its own tourney
Opts out of states due to tight time frame between PIAA, district tournaments
No District 11 football team has won a PIAA title since Allentown Central Catholic took the 3A gold in 2010.
That streak of no District 11 squad winning a state championship will continue for at least another year.
District 11 officials voted 20-0 on Wednesday morning to opt out of the PIAA football tournament and hold its own district tournament that would feature 36 of the 46 football-playing members. The unanimous vote was the result of the PIAA contracting its state tournament by two weeks and deciding to hold its state finals the weekend after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27 and 28, instead of the second weekend of December as originally scheduled.
“Having Thanksgiving weekend for state championships allows for a lot of districts to participate in the state playoffs,” District 11 Chairman and Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman said. “Unfortunately, we’re not one of them.”
The condensed schedule would not have allowed for any district playoff games to occur in five of the six classifications prior to the start of the state tournament. The lone exception was in Class 6A, where there was room for one district game prior to the start of states.
Prior to last week, surveys had been sent out to all District 11 schools, and of the 38 that returned the surveys, only four expressed the preference of going on to states rather than stopping at the league level.
The Colonial League, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and Schuylkill League schedules were all abbreviated by concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and are set to conclude the final weekend of October. The state tournament will begin the following week.
Instead of the PIAA playoffs, the District 11 tournament will begin the first weekend of November and feature two or three rounds, depending on the class. Classes 6A, 4A and 2A will have eight-team fields. Classes 5A, 3A and 1A will feature four participants.
The 36 participants represent an increase by at least eight over the original schedule, since sub-regional formats with other districts were eliminated.
Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be held at the home field of the higher seed. Attempts will be made to hold the championship games at neutral sites.
Without any district tournament games in five of the six classes, District 11 would have had to use power rankings rather than actual games to determine state qualifiers.
Schools that don’t qualify for districts will have the option of scheduling other games, as will teams that are knocked out of districts in the early rounds. The PIAA has allowed games to be played until Thanksgiving weekend as long as they don’t exceed the 10-game maximum.
“We’re going to have very few teams sitting home in what I’ll call Week 11 [the first weekend of November when the postseason starts],” said District 11 football Chairman and Northwestern Lehigh athletic director Jason Zimmerman. “Hopefully, those schools will match up with each other.
“I believe you’ll also see some schools that lose in our playoffs hook up with other teams that lost and schedule games so they can pad their schedules a little bit and give their kids some additional opportunities.”
With several games already having been canceled due to positive COVD19 test results, District 11 playoff games could also be affected by the pandemic.
In that case, District 11 would likely follow the PIAA guidance and advance the team not affected by COVID-19 to the next round if a game can’t be rescheduled in a reasonable time frame.
Hartman, also vice president of the PIAA Board of Control, said there are no hard feelings between the PIAA and District 11.
“I don’t think our decision will lead to a revamping of the state tournament,” Hartman said. “Naturally, with us opting out, it will free up a line in all of those PIAA brackets and maybe provide other opportunities to districts.”
Harold Fairclough, the current Emmaus football coach who was in charge of Central Catholic’s 2010 state champs, understands the decision.
“Before we got the opportunity to come back and restart our activities, if you talked to any coach, he’d say ‘Just give us something,’ ” Fairclough said.