Aliquippa football glad to be back in 3A after PIAA reverses decision
· Yahoo Sports
After several years of playing Class 4A football, Aliquippa Head Football Coach Mike Warfield said he’s looking forward to the next two years of Class 3A after the PIAA reversed its decision to keep the Quips in 4A on an appeal.
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“It’s putting us in a situation that we’re playing schools in similar size, which is just fair,” Warfield told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “That’s what we always just asked for.”
Dewayne Revis played football for Aliquippa and graduated in 2020. He said the team having to play up two class sizes makes it hard. Those schools are bigger and have more players on the team.
“It’s 22 positions. 11 on offense, 11 on defense. We are playing 11 each way. We’re playing both sides of the ball,” Revis said. “It’s kind of hard when we’re playing that and you’ve got injuries coming along, you’ve got other things coming along, moving around to other positions, it’s definitely tough.”
Warfield said that’s been Aliquippa’s concern for years.
The team has played in 4A since 2020 after the PIAA changed how it considered transfers of players into the schools. It was two class sizes bigger than the enrollment size at the school, which sits at 2A.
At the end of last season, Warfield said the team had 28 players. 15 of them were freshmen, who are smaller than many other teams’ juniors and seniors.
“It’s just the health and safety of our student athletes,” Warfield said. “That’s always been our number one, two and three, concern. So, we were consistently arguing throughout these numerous cycles that our kids were being put in harm’s way playing up two, three classifications above our normal.”
After winning last year’s WPIAL 4A Championship, Warfield understands there may be some people who think Aliquippa will have an easier time playing down a class size.
“Yes, we did win 4A this past year, but we also lost to Avonworth, who is a 3A school,” he said. “We absolutely won’t take this year lightly, because there is really, really good competition that we’re going to be facing.”
Warfield said he is also excited for the potential to play more 3A schools in Beaver County like Hopewell, Ambridge, and Central Valley over the next two years.
Aliquippa will play Class 3A football until at least the 2028 season.
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