The PIAA today released new enrollment parameters that determine the classifications in which schools will compete during the 2024-2025 & 2025-2026 school years. These numbers are revised every two years based on enrollment figures submitted by the schools. For sports that have six classifications (football, basketball, baseball, softball), the state divides the schools playing a particular sport into six virtually equal classes. In other sports, the schools playing those sports are divided evenly among the specific number of classes. The ‘cut lines’ for the new cycle changed substantially from the current cycle due to a change in how PIAA member schools are to count vo-tech, cyber and charter school students. There are several more steps that will impact specific section determinations: voluntary “play-up” declarations due to be submitted to PIAA by the end of the month, competition formula “bump up” changes based on state-wide success points and inclusion of transfers, and WPIAL committee decisions regarding alignment once these other steps have been completed.
The overall impact is that most teams in Washington & Greene Counties stayed put in their current classifications but schools with large enrollment changes or ones who were close to the previous lines have moved up or down. Following are the changes involving the major sports (Football, soccer, girls volleyball, basketball, baseball & softball) based on our survey of the 19 athletic directors in the two-county area:
Beth-Center girls volleyball and softball both move down to 1A
Burgettstown girls volleyball moves up to 2A
California boys basketball, baseball and softball all move up to 2A
Charleroi football, baseball and softball all move up to 3A, boys & girls soccer both move to 2A
Chartiers-Houston girls volleyball and softball both move to 2A
Fort Cherry baseball moves to 2A
McGuffey football moves to 3A
Peters Township girls basketball moves down to 5A
Ringgold girls soccer moves down to 2A
Wash High baseball, girls basketball and softball all move up to 3A
Jeff-Morgan girls basketball moves up to 2A
Waynesburg softball moves down to 2A
West Greene boys basketball moves up to 2A