Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association

""'The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., usually referred to as PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and junior high school sports for the state of Pennsylvania, United States.

PIAA member schools are known for some of the most highly-regarded and competitive high school sports programs in the U.S. The state's football, field hockey, swimming and wrestling programs are generally considered among the best, and sometimes the best, in the U.S.

The PIAA is based in the Harrisburg suburb of Mechanicsburg.

History

Beginning in Pittsburgh, on December 29, 1913, the PIAA was given the privilege of serving its member schools and registered officials by establishing policies and adopting contest rules that emphasize the educational values of interscholastic athletics, promote safe and sportsmanlike competition, and provide uniform standards for all interscholastic levels of competition.

As a result of the cooperative efforts of its membership, PIAA has assisted intermediate school, middle school, junior high school, and senior high school students in participating in interscholastic athletic programs on a fair and equitable basis, thus producing important education benefits.

Districts

The PIAA divides its member schools' counties into 12 geographical districts for the purpose of state championship competition. The following list is the district breakdown by county.

* District 1: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery
* District 2: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming
* District 3: Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York
* District 4: Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga and Union
* District 5: Bedford, Fulton and Somerset
* District 6: Blair, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Huntingdon, Indiana and Mifflin
* District 7: Allegheny (except for City of Pittsburgh), Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland, also known as the WPIAL
* District 8: Pittsburgh Public Schools
* District 9: Cameron, Clarion, Elk, Jefferson, McKean and Potter
* District 10: Crawford, Erie, Forest, Mercer, Venango and Warren
* District 11: Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton and Schuylkill
* District 12: Philadelphia Catholic League and the Philadelphia Public Schools

While this is a general outline of the districts, there are some notable exceptions:
* Private schools within District 8 (City of Pittsburgh) compete in District 7.
* Boyertown Area Senior High School, in Berks county, is a member of District 1.
* Interacademic Athletic Association of Philadelphia, and the Friends Schools League are not members of the PIAA, but compete independently as their own organizations. Other private schools in Philadelphia County compete in District 1.
* Philadelphia Catholic League schools previously competed independently as its own organization, but joined the PIAA for the 2007-2008 school year, and will participate in playoffs by 2008-2009. PCL schools previously in District 1 will compete in District 12.
* Slippery Rock Area High School, in Butler County, is a member of District 10.
* Indiana High School, in Indiana County, is a member of District 7, but will move to District 6 in 2011.
* Palisades High School, in Bucks County, is a member of District 11.
* Curwensville Area High School, DuBois Area High School, and Clearfield Area High School, in Clearfield County, are members of District 9.
* Ligonier Valley High School and Laurel Valley High School, in Westmoreland County, are members of District 6. Ligoner is expected to move to WPIAL in 2011.
* Keystone Central School District is the only district entirely composed of Clinton County municipalities. The larger of the district's two high schools, Central Mountain, is a member of District 6, while the other, Bucktail High School, is a member of District 4.
* District 6 4A schools compete with District 3 to create a region in football because of the lack of 4A schools in District 6.
*The same is done in District 5, with 3A Bedford competing in District 6 for basketball.

East vs. West

Traditionally for state championship competition for team sports, Pennsylvania is divided into Eastern and Western Regions. Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, and 12 usually make up the Eastern Region; while Districts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 usually make up the Western Region. The winners of each region compete against each other for the state championship. However, since the creation of District 12 with the admission of the Philadelphia Public Schools into the PIAA, the East vs. West format has been abandoned for some sports at certain classifications; particularly at the Class "AAAA" level where there are more large schools in the East. For example, in PIAA football, the district 3/6 AAAA subregion competes in the western region during state playoffs, pitting them against the WPIAL, while in the three other classifications, District 3 schools compete in state playoffs against the schools from Philadelphia.

ports

The PIAA sponsors 16 boys' sports and 16 girls' sports. However, the PIAA only sponsors state championships for 12 boys' sports and 11 girls' sports. The following is a list of PIAA sponsored sports championships.

*Boys' sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball and wrestling

*Girls' sports: basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball

There are Pennsylvania schools that offer sports not fully sponsored by the PIAA such as gymnastics, ice hockey, bowling, rifle, water polo and other olympic sports. These sports are governed by other sport specific bodies that use similar PIAA rules for classification and eligibility, but are not officially regonized as "state champions" by the PIAA. The PIAA took over jurisdiction of both boy's and girl's lacrosse in July 2008.

chool classifications

Every two years the PIAA divides the member schools into either two, three, or four different classifications for each sport depending on the number of male or female students enrolled in each school. The number of statewide member schools participating in a particular sport will determine how many different classifications there will be. For example, boys' volleyball, the sport with the smallest number of participating schools, only has a "AA" or "AAA" classification. By comparison, boys' basketball, which has the largest number of participating schools, has "A", "AA", "AAA", and "AAAA" classifications. The number of "A"s signify how large or small the school is; "A" is the smallest classification, while "AAAA" is the largest. The PIAA tries to place an equal number of schools in each classification.

Because the PIAA determines classifications separately for each sex in each sport, it is possible that a coeducational school may find its boys' and girls' teams in different classes in the same sport. Smaller schools can choose to compete at a higher classification—possible reasons are to maintain existing rivalries, or in rare cases to place their boys' and girls' teams in the same class—but larger schools can not choose to compete at a lower classification level. For purposes of all-star games and awards, the "A" and "AA" classes are referred to as "small schools", while "AAA" and "AAAA" are referred to as "big schools". It is rumored that in football, there may be a split into five or six classifications, instead of the current four.

Hershey, PA

While some sports' championship games have been held at various venues and cities across the state, no city is more associated with the PIAA than Hershey. Hershey's proximity to Harrisburg, as well as easy highway access via the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstates 81 and 83 for teams from across the state makes it an ideal location for the games. Hersheypark Stadium hosts the football and soccer championships; The GIANT Center hosts the basketball and wrestling; and the Hershey Raquet Club hosts the tennis championships. The basketball championships are probably associated with Hershey the most by high school sports fans across the state as the games have been held in Hershey since 1976, first at the Hersheypark Arena, then moving to the Giant Center in 2003. It is tradition for fans to throw Hershey's Kisses onto the court after their school wins their semi-final game to advance to the state championship level. Even the non-PIAA sport of ice hockey hosted the 2005 Pennsylvania Cup championship at the historic Hersheypark Arena. The PIAA football championships have only been played since 1988 with the first games being held at Penn State's Beaver Stadium. In the early '90's the game was moved to Altoona's Mansion Park in part because playing four games in two days would not affect the artificial turf playing surface on the field. The football championships were moved to Hershey in the late '90's to add to the tradition of PIAA championship competition games at Hershey. Altoona however does host the baseball championships at Blair County Ballpark, home of the minor league baseball club the Altoona Curve. In 2006, the PIAA announced that they had refused Hershey's application for a contract extension to host the basketball championships at the Giant Center. Starting for the 2006-2007 season, the eight championship games will be played at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center. The PIAA cited monetary reasons for the move.

Championship sites

Fall 2008-2009

pring 2008-2010

External links

* [http://www.piaa.org/ PIAA Official Web Site] .
* [http://www.piaa.org/Schools/2006-08_classification_reports/2006-08SportsClasses.htm "2006-2008 PIAA Schools' Classifications by Sport" at PIAA.org] .
* [http://www.gobanana.com/pwn/default.htm "Pennsylvania Wrestling News" magazine] .