Cover Story: PIAA’s Class actions difficult to judge after first two years

August 22, 2018

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It’s with a hushed tone that Ato Troop thinks back to last season’s finale at Penn Wood football camp.

Each of the last two seasons, Troop’s team has run across dreaded Perkiomen Valley in the District 1 Class 6A playoffs. Two years ago, the Vikings ran up 55 points in a lopsided win over the No. 14 Patriots. Last fall, a game that stung immeasurably more, saw the second-seeded Vikings recover from a 16-point second-half deficit to claim a 38-30 win.

There’s one consolation for Troop and his players: The 2018 season won’t end at the hands of Perkiomen Valley. Even as they convene for preseason camp, that end-of-season truth is secure.

It’s not due to the Patriots’ growth as a team. It’s because the new PIAA football classifications have the Patriots in Class 5A while the Vikings remain solidly in 6A.

If Troop has the opportunity to gameplan for a playoff contest this season, he’ll still focus on Xs and Os, on executing, on being the better team on the day. He won’t have to worry about structural disparities, like having 43 Patriots in uniform against 90-something Perk Valley players.

More than that, Troop won’t fret over the week-to-week stress of merely qualifying for the playoffs. It took an 8-2 record for Penn Wood to squeeze into the District 1 Class 6A field last year, emerging as the champion of a Del Val League in which it was the only 6A team. By comparison, league mate Glen Mills grabbed the 14th spot in the Class 5A field last year at 3-6.

“We were 8-2, won the conference and we were a 15 seed driving an hour for a playoff game,” Troop said. “We still had an opportunity to win that game, but if we are in 5A, we would’ve been like a three or four seed, playing at home, which makes a huge difference. I think the players like it because they know in the playoffs they might get an opportunity to play another Delco team. We might play Academy Park twice or get an opportunity to play Springfield or Marple Newtown, and these are guys that they know, they train with in the offseason. So from a competitive standpoint, it’s nice.”

League Previews

Penn Wood’s Desman Johnson Jr. drags a Perkiomen Valley defender with him en route to a first down during the second half of their 2017 District 1-6A playoff game. (Sam Stewart – Digital First Media file)

The conversations that Troop and his coaching staff are having at Penn Wood are experienced all across District 1 and across Pennsylvania. The PIAA has navigated the first two-year cycle in the new six-classification system for football, a system which contains distinct impermanence for many.

Schools like Penn Wood are at the constant risk of seeing their classifications change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. And where the challenge in a densely populated area like Southeastern Pa. is about success, the wide geographic spread of Pennsylvania posits a massive logistical challenge elsewhere.

The classes are, by necessity, transient, with surveys conducted on two-year cycles to sort schools by enrollment. Once programs settled into a structure, their postseason opponents can abruptly change. With more classes come more interfaces between them, which opens opportunities for schools to rise or fall. And that’s not to even mention the approval by the PIAA this summer of a success-factor formula that augments enrollments by factoring in transfers and wins in inter-district competitions, a system so distant that few coaches have even begun to explore its possible ramifications.

The system is usually too vast to affect the day-to-day operations. But at the end of the season, it’s easy to look back and wonder ‘what if’… What if we’d had this talent in a smaller class? What if that team had just one or two more students and not been in our class?

“It’s definitely going to be an interesting story and a major part of the season,” Pottsgrove football coach Bill Hawthorne said. “But right now it’s hard to project it.”

With more changes on the horizon, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the first two years of the six classifications, in the sport for which it was first adopted and see what its effects have been.

Luke Stengel (64) and Ryan Loughlin (7) celebrate with Kyle Pitts of Archbishop Wood after Pitts’ TD catch against Gateway in the PIAA Class 5A football championship at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, PA on Friday, December 8, 2017. Mark Palczewski | Special to PA Prep Live.

Chances are you’re not looking at the six-classification system in the same way its designer did.

When Bob Tonkin, a longtime administrator in District 9 in western Pennsylvania, devised the system in 2015, he didn’t see the six classes as being about state championships. As easy as it is, in a time of increasing animosity between so-called boundary and non-boundary schools in which the latter is gobbling up a disproportionate share of championships, Tonkin didn’t design the system as a pacifier, to dole out more trophies and satiate the masses.

He looked at it the other way, in football especially. More state championships equaled more teams qualifying for district and state competition, the kinds of important games that are most memorable and meaningful for student-athletes. The mechanics of the plan added a wrinkle of compromise by flattening the season. With the optional Week 0, for a 10th regular-season game or second scrimmage, teams play fewer games while also increasing their chances of postseason football. The broadening of the system to more classes shortened the season, avoiding conflicts with the winter season. While initially taken by surprise with its application to most team sports and an expansion of classes almost across the board, Tonkin is happy to see increased inclusiveness beyond football.

So while the plan is occasionally derided as more trophies for all, that wasn’t its intent.

“Our purpose in fighting for the six-classification system, it was always going back to the idea of getting more teams involved in the playoffs than we had before with four classifications,” said George Shue, associate executive director of the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association (PSFCA). “That was our intent. I think with PIAA, that’s the way they looked at it as well.”

Tonkin, who serves on a number of committees in District 9 and travels frequently to PIAA events, has garnered a lot of feedback. He’s not self-aggrandizing, but he’s found most of the response positive. For football specifically, he cites the safety edge of the shortened schedule, while the increase in classes has necessitated closer relationships between districts, particularly in rural parts of the state that rely on regional contests.

“In my travels, I have not heard a negative comment from any of those sources about the increase in classifications,” Tonkin said. “Some of my thoughts and some of the reasons why I got behind it and put this together is that it gives our student athletes a great opportunity to play in district and inter-district competition. It increases the number of those chances for student-athletes.”

There are systemic issues that the six-classification system neither set out to solve nor can realistically mitigate. One is the boundary/non-boundary conflict, which the PIAA has sought to address in recent months. Moves such as a database of transfers, mandatory sit-out for in-season transfers and a postseason ban for players transferring after 10th grade in the first season at a new school are hoped to ameliorate some of the tension. Tonkin said that when he designed the system, he shied away from approaching the boundary/non-boundary question, both as a non-starter statewide and because he wanted a system that would work independent of the larger quandary. The system he devised is distinctly non-partisan in that regard; that it has such staunch defenders as Shue, whose organization includes coaches at public and non-public schools, is an indication of that.

Coatesville players hold the District 1 Class 6A trophy after defeating Garnet Valley, 35-28, in last year’s title game. (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)

Other ideas, like a “Super 700” class for the largest schools, or the PIAA’s proposed inclusion of a seventh “super class” in the success-factor system, didn’t pass muster. But there was something about the environment in which Tonkin put forth his plan in 2015 that allowed it to get across the finish line where similar efforts in the previous decade — 2003, 2006, 2009 — failed to.

Some of the PIAA’s issues weren’t created by the six-class system, and they won’t be solved by it. There’s a prominent demographic imbalance. In the two largest classes, 6A and 5A, 54.7 percent of teams hail from Districts 1 and 3 (104 of 190). Five districts (1, 3, 7, 11 and 12) account for 91.6 percent of the Class 6A and 5A schools. Nearly 90 percent of football teams in 6A hail from those five districts (84 of 94); when they win titles, as is almost inevitable, it inflames the urban vs. rural divide that clouds conversations. It also leaves vast swathes with no big schools for state competition. District 4, for instance, has one 6A team (Williamsport) and no 5A teams. District 8, the city of Pittsburgh, has one 6A team and one 5A team.
Tonkin’s intent in reviving the six-class idea was never to iron out all the geographical textures of Pennsylvania. His aim was to widen the net of teams deriving the full benefits of playoff competition. And in that regard, he’s happy with the outcome.

“The other thing it has done it has the opportunity for some new schools to enter the playoffs that never had the opportunity to play before,” he said. “So we have new people into the playoff system.”

The board-room intricacies filter down to the gridiron, but they’re usually relegated behind more pressing matters.

Practically, they impact scheduling, as Troop knows. Last season, Penn Wood opened with trips to Souderton, Pennsbury and Council Rock North, three 6A teams that carry big strength-of-schedule bonuses. Penn Wood went 1-2, but losing to 6A teams carried more power-point value than beating 4A opposition.

The choice, though, isn’t easy. Logistically speaking, those bus rides took more than an hour for the Patriots. For the last two-year cycle, Pennsbury was calculated as the fifth-largest boys enrollment in the state, at 1,387 students. Penn Wood, among the smaller 6A schools, had 572, a stark discrepancy.

So Troop wasn’t surprised to see the Falcons field 90 varsity players, more than he has among freshman, JV and varsity.

“In 6A, there’s probably a little bit more pressure because you can’t afford to slip up,” Troop said. “We played a lot of close games, too many for my liking, and if we lose any of those games, even at 7-3, we probably don’t make the playoffs. Generally 5A has been more forgiving in terms of schedules and what you can do.”

Now that they’re in 5A, Troop doesn’t have to schedule the same way. If there’s a 4A team he wants to play, it’s won’t hobble his team’s postseason hopes. He can also stay local and tap into the abundance of 5A teams in Delco, particularly among the Central League set.

The countervailing move to Penn Wood is rival Chester, which rises from Class 5A to 6A. The Clippers didn’t make the postseason the last two years; the chance to get there now grows exponentially harder.

Then there’s the revolving door installed in Class 4A. The title each of the last two years has been won by Pottsgrove, which prevailed in the four-team tournament by wide margins each year.

The opposition has changed drastically. In the last two-year cycle, six teams comprised Class 4A. Only two remain, Pottsgrove and Pottstown. Interboro and Upper Perkiomen, both playoff qualifiers the last two years, have vaulted up to 5A. Pope John Paul II has fallen to 3A. Octorara remains a Class 4A school, but it’s now in District 3 with its move to the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

Yet the Class 4A field is somehow more robust with seven teams. Lower Moreland and Springfield-Montco rise from 3A; Glen Mills, Bishop Shanahan and Upper Moreland slide from 5A. The downgraded trio combined for five playoff berths in two seasons. Shanahan twice hosted home games as top-eight seeds, while Upper Moreland was the second seed last year.

“There’s going to be not only more opponents, but you’re going to have more quality opponents,” Hawthorne said. “… That makes every game in the regular season that much more important because you’re competing against more teams to get more points to actually fill those four spots. You have less room for mistakes.”

Pottsgrove’s Rahsul Faison runs for a long touchdown against Upper Perkiomen in the 2017 District 1-4A title game. While Upper Perk was a 4A finalist last year, a move up to 5A makes a playoff run this season a taller task. (Austin Hertzog – DFM file)

More classes also present more opportunities to voluntarily play up, including some of the most prominent names in PIAA football. Archbishop Wood, for instance, saw its boys enrollment drop from 425 to 351, landing in Class 4A numerically, but it has opted to play up to 5A.

That decision was made under the reign of coach Steve Devlin, who retired after last season and his fifth state title. It’s one of many legacies bequeathed to new coach Kyle Adkins. Wood has won the PIAA Class 5A title two straight years.

“I think it depends on case-by-case basis,” Adkins said. “There’s a lot of teams that move every two years. We’re playing different teams. It’s always changing once the two years cycle turns over. It is what it is.”

Wood isn’t alone. Bethlehem Catholic and Imhotep Charter are both Class 3A schools playing up to 4A. Imhotep has made the last two 4A finals, both times losing to Cathedral Prep; Bethlehem Catholic lost to Imhotep in the state semis each of the last two seasons. Several Class A private schools in the West of the state, including Serra Catholic in District 6 and Bishop Carroll in District 7, play up to 2A. And District 10 has lessened its classification oddity in Class 4A: In the last cycle, nine D10 teams with 4A enrollments played up a class to avoid juggernaut Cathedral Prep; this cycle, only four are still doing so.

Pottsgrove’s Elijah Chhuor (25) can only get a grab of the shirt on Bethlehem Catholic’s Daizhun Rhodes (5) on a long gain during last year’s PIAA 4A playoffs. District 11’s Bethlehem Catholic, which plays up from 3A, eliminated District 1 champ Pottsgrove in back-to-back years but eliminated themselves both seasons by Imhotep. (Austin Hertzog – Digital First Media)

All those nuances have a bearing on this season. But for most coaches navigating training camps, just how that will transpire is unclear. There are more practical matters at hand.

“To me, they’re still trying to figure out the system, so they’re still moving pieces around to get the best possible playoff system across the board,” Hawthorne said. “And that’s really our job to adapt to what is there and who we have to play in the future.

Troop has one idea, a potentially fortunate consequence of the shuffling. The last two years, the underclassmen-laden squad took its lumps in Class 6A. Many seniors are back, having tasted the disappointment of playoff setbacks. And with the opportunity to take on an objectively shallower field of combatants, they’re out to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It tested them mentally,” Troop said. “When you look at the film, you can show them, hey these little things that we don’t do have hurt us, so now they know. Hey, when coach says I take two steps, not one or three, coach means two steps. When coach says don’t backpeddle, don’t backpeddle.

“So it definitely makes the hungry. They definitely want it. These seniors lost to Perk Valley the last two years, so they’re hungry for that win. It’s definitely made us tougher.”