Football Fumbles in Schedules with City League not in sync with WPIAL

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/sports/highschool/s_206279.html

Thanks for the great article on the troubles faced in the city now that it is out of sync with the WPIAL.

We have many issues to deal with in the city and the very best way to face them is to quickly move to join the WPIAL. The City League needs to be a memory, for all sports.

This topic is covered, in part, within a position paper put online in May, 2004, at http://DSL.CLOH.Org/v1/.

We should get the WPIAL offices to move into the now closing South Vo Tech, along with City Sports Leaders, Citiparks, County Parks and Rec, Community Sports Leagues, Great Race coordinators, Senior Games offices, B.I.G. Leagues, and a slew of other Olympic and Recreational boosters and governing bodies.

It is no suprise that only two from Western PA are in Athens for the Olympics. We need an approach that says we are up to the task of Creating Literate Olympians HERE.

Ta.

>  By Ryan Buncher
> TRIBUNE-REVIEW
> Tuesday, August 3, 2004 
> The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Education created one hole in the 
> schedules of City League football teams when it voted to close South 
> Vo-Tech in May, but it isn't the only complication.

The South Vo Tech coaches, for a couple of years, had called for the ending of the City League and an exit to the WPIAL. The football coaches wanted to move the South squad to the WPIAL, if nothing else.

South has to play PERRY. That isn't fun for PERRY nor South. South should have been playing the likes of Fort Cherry and Brentwood.

Now, even Langley is a small school.

> The WPIAL's decision to move the start of its season up one week, with the 
> PIAA's approval, created even more holes in the schedules of the nine 
> remaining City League football teams, though those are in the preseason. 
> 
> The biggest problem is the disruption of the City League teams' scrimmage 
> schedules, particularly Aug. 27 and 28, when WPIAL teams will be playing 
> their regular-season openers.

All this makes for another reason for families to move out of the city.

> As of last week, Carrick, Perry, Schenley and Westinghouse were unable to 
> find a scrimmage for that week, while Peabody and Brashear will scrimmage 
> one another.

More internal competitions isn't the solution I desire. We need to get OUT more, not do so much among the city's schools.

> "It's horrible," Brashear coach Ron Wabby said. "I must have called 26 
> schools trying to get in on a tri-scrimmage or something and trying to get 
> a game. I called as far away as Maryland. District 7 moving up screws 
> everybody up, especially us. We depend on them for our scrimmages. We're 
> surrounded by them. You usually go to the same two schools every year. We 
> had to scramble around." 
> 
> Schenley lost its first-week scrimmage with Shady Side Academy as well, but 
> replaced it with a trip to Redbank Valley.

When I talked to the Shady Side Academy Athletic Director last year about these ideas, while at a soccer match, he was all in favor of the city schools joining the WPIAL. He and the other AD in the conversation longed for rivals within the city. It gives great flavors to the city kids -- and the suburban kids -- even at PREP schools.

> 
> "It's been a nightmare," Schenley coach Jim Trent said. "We got stuck 
> without a second scrimmage." 
>

Our kids are NOT going to be prepared. This isn't the way to run a "world class district."

> During the winter, the WPIAL petitioned the PIAA for the right to start its 
> season a week earlier because the WPIAL champions will be entering the 
> state playoffs a round earlier this fall to accommodate the arrival of the 
> Philadelphia public schools. The PIAA granted only the WPIAL permission to 
> move up only in football due to those circumstances.

The move of PHILI schools to the PIAA is a big one. It was years in the making. Great. There is a trend here. We in Pittsburgh should move into the WPIAL.

> 
> "As the District 8 representative to the PIAA, I made the request to move 
> up, but it was not granted by the PIAA," City League athletic director Vern 
> Phillips said. "That was largely for scheduling concerns. By us starting a 
> week after them, we are really losing our opportunity to match up with them 
> for both weeks. It's a tough situation. It will be in effect for two years. 
> After that, who knows what it will be?"

When you join that league -- you don't need to make that request.

> 
> "I don't understand why the PIAA would sanction only one district to move 
> up," Wabby said. "We are surrounded by District 7. Whatever they do, we 
> have to do."

It makes no sense to have an "IRON CURTIN" of schools all around the city and NOT be a part of the city. We need to not be the hold of neglect in the middle of the danish.

> The nine remaining City League teams were given an open date the week that 
> South would have been on their schedules. That left the City League teams 
> looking for non-league games for the first time in more than a decade, but 
> Perry, Brashear, Westinghouse and Langley entered this week without games 
> confirmed.

This speaks to how some have to work hard to care for themselves -- like swimming upstream. Meanwhile, at other places, there are many in positions who just don't really care enough.

Go tell Penn Hills or go tell West Allegheny, -- or any other team in the WPIAL - you have an open date. See if they just sit back and are okay with that.

These games are learning experiences. As a coach, I want to teach the kids as much as possible.

The No Child Left Behind platform puts plenty of weight on 'attendance.' Meanwhile, there are many school teams within the city -- beyond football -- that don't play enough contests to even legally qualify for their sport's playoffs. How many swim meets are part of the schedule for the high school teams, in the city, excluding The Dice? You're lucky to find five, after the 'rain-outs' are factored into the setting.

Competitions get onto the schedule and get cancelled.

> 
> Allderdice already went out of Pennsylvania for a game and will play on the 
> road against David Anderson High School in Lisbon, Ohio, 62 miles away, in 
> its season opener Sept. 3. 
> 
> Carrick, Oliver, Peabody and Schenley were able to take advantage of 
> midseason openings in the WPIAL Century Conference schedules. Oliver will 
> get the chance to play away from Cupples Stadium at Northgate Sept. 24, as 
> will Peabody with its game at South Allegheny Oct. 15. Schenley will play 
> Seton-La Salle in a Thursday afternoon game at Cupples on Sept. 30, a week 
> before South Fayette comes to the South Side to play Carrick.

How many years has it been since Oliver played a game on the road, outside the city?

> 
> "We like it," Trent said of playing a WPIAL team during the regular season. 
> "My problem is we're going to play them on a Thursday afternoon. If we're 
> going to play a WPIAL school, at least get it under the lights. (Playing 
> outside the league) is a great experience for our kids."

You bet. We should be playing more than 85% our games on Friday nights. A few for Saturday afternoon is fine, but we are not doing the game, the kids, the families, the boosters, the bands, the teachers, the opponents, the taxpayers, the citizens within the community -- any favors by playing Thursday night games nor early games on Friday.

> Perry is negotiating with Ursuline High School in Youngstown for its 
> opening in week three, but Wabby was resigned to most likely having to be 
> off week 8. Westinghouse is also unlikely to find a game for the second 
> week of the season. Langley has its opening during the 10th week of the 
> WPIAL schedule, so it should be able to find a game against a team that 
> misses the WPIAL playoffs. 
> 
> "I would rather be open week eight than week two or three, when you are 
> just getting going," Wabby said. "Week eight could be a blessing. By that 
> time of year, we might have kids chipped up. Maybe it will be good to take 
> it easy."

We do get kids chipped up at the end of the season -- as there are often too few kids on the team at the start of the season. The blessing would be to have larger squads. The kids need to be part of VIABLE programs.

How many kids were on Langley's team any given week in the past years? The numbers are in flux with eligibity, suspensions and such. But, it must be about half of what happens throughout the WPIAL.

> 
> 
> Ryan Buncher can be reached at rbuncher@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7934.

Football Fumbles in Schedules with City League not in sync with WPIAL

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