Tuesday, October 4, 2011

State football rankings

Pennsylvania high school football rankings from The Patriot-News of Harrisburg for the week of Tuesday, Oct. 4, with school’s district in parentheses, followed by the school’s record and last week’s ranking. NR means not ranked. Honorable mention teams listed alphabetically. (P)-2010 PIAA champion.

CLASS AAAA Rec Pvs
1. Pittsburgh C.C. (7) 5-0 1
2. North Allegheny (P) (7) 5-0 2
3. LaSalle College HS (12) 4-1 3
4. Upper St. Clair (7) 4-1 4
5. North Penn (1) 3-2 5
6. Cumberland Valley (3) 5-0 7
7. Father Judge (12) 4-1 NR
8. Woodland Hills (7) 4-1 8
9. Nazareth (11) 5-0 NR
10. Abington (1) 5-0 NR
Teams to watch:
Coatesville (1) 4-1, Council Rock South (1) 4-1, Downingtown East (1) 4-1, Gateway (7) 4-1, McDowell (10) 4-1, Neshaminy (1) 4-1, Penn-Trafford (7) 5-0, Whitehall (11) 4-1, Wyoming Valley West (2) 5-0.

CLASS AAA Rec Pvs
1. Archbishop Wood (12) 4-1 1
2. Central Valley (7) 5-0 2
3. Grove City (10) 5-0 3
4. Montour (7) 4-1 5
5. Bishop McDevitt (3) 3-2 6
6. Cathedral Prep (10) 4-1 7
7. Hopewell (7) 4-1 3
8. Valley View (2) 5-0 8
9. West Allegheny (7) 3-2 10
10. Cardinal O’Hara (12) 3-2 NR
Teams to watch:
Blackhawk (7) 4-1, Clearfield (9) 5-0, Franklin Regional (7) 5-0, Greater Johnstown (6) 5-0, Knoch (7) 5-0, Susquehanna Twp. (3) 3-2, Thomas Jefferson (7) 3-2.

CLASS AA Rec Pvs
1. Aliquippa (7) 5-0 1
2. Lancaster Catholic (3) 5-0 2
3. West Catholic (P) (12) 2-3 3
4. North Schuylkill (11) 5-0 4
5. Seton-LaSalle (7) 5-0 5
6. Mount Carmel (4) 5-0 6
7. Trinity (3) 4-1 7
8. Lewisburg (4) 3-2 8
9. Greensburg C.C. (7) 5-0 9
10. Beaver Falls (7) 4-1 10
Teams to watch
Beaver Area (7) 5-0, Bloomsburg (4) 4-0, Hickory (10) 4-1, Jeannette (7) 5-0, Northern Lehigh (11) 5-0, Pen Argyl (11) 5-0, Pine Grove (11) 5-0, Wilmington (10) 5-0.

CLASS A Rec Pvs
1. Clairton (P) (7) 5-0 1
2. Southern Columbia (4) 5-0 2
3. Sto-Rox (7) 5-0 3
4. Dunmore (2) 5-0 4
5. Rochester (7) 4-1 5
6. Pius X (11) 5-0 6
7. Line Mountain (4) 4-1 9
8. Lackawanna Trail (2) 5-0 10
9. Bishop McCort (6) 4-1 7
10. Bishop Canevin (7) 5-0 NR
Teams to watch
Juniata Valley (6) 5-0, Mercer (10) 4-1, Mercyhurst Prep (10) 4-1, North Catholic (7) 4-1, North Star (5) 5-0, Riverside (2) 3-2, Sharpsville (10) 4-0, Youngsville (10) 5-0.

10 comments:

Joey Niklas said...

Let me raise this again. If Clairton needs to "move up" then shouldn't Dunmore, Sto Rox, Rochester and Southern Columbia. Those schools are Clairton's peers and all. Maybe the WPIAL should have 8 Conferences of 4-5 teams so Clairton can play "bigger" schools more often w/out burying its entire conference schedule. Fact is Southern Columbia used to pound Rochester, and other WPIAL schools in the state title game. They blew out a Elijah Fields led Duquesne squad. Steel High beat Serra and Clairton by 19-20 points a few years back. WPIAL Class A is down and that isn't Clairton's fault, so why should they have to play up. Schools like Char Houston, Monessen, Beth Center, Springdale, and Fort Cherry needs to raise their levels up to the likes of Rochy, Clairton, and Sto Rox. In the late 90's early 00's Char Houston, and FC was there, so they have the potential to be Clairton and Rochester's peers again.

mike_kovak said...

Joey, it's not about the past, but I'll bring up a few things from the past to support my side of the debate.

I worked at the Beaver County Times when Rochester began its run of dominance in the late 1990s. The Rams were in no way as dominant as these Clairton teams, and were pushed by the likes of Monaca, Fort Cherry and South Fayette to name a few. No one is pushing Clairton. No one is coming close to pushing Clairton.

Teams like Southern Columbia and Bishop McCort, Dunmore too, play schools from larger classifications during the regular season. I grew up near McCort and that school plays many of the largers schools in that area and fares well.

It's easy to say schools like Beth-Center, Char-Houston, etc should just "raise their levels up", don't you think they're trying? You're talking about farm country in a lot of these places. The talent level only runs so high. Char-Houston may have its best team in years. This could be the best B-C team since 2006, and the Bulldogs have been a consistent winner.

The time has come to move up. I see it as beneficial, particularly for the kids from Clairton who move on to D1 schools. Many of those players aren't making impacts at the next level, and I have to wonder if it's because things came far too easily at the high school level.

A split in Class A really waters things down in general. Who wants to see a WPIAL champion crowned out of the 12 smaller schools in the district? Doesn't sound exciting to me or even worth celebrating.

My 10 cents.

Joey Niklas said...

Honestly, I hope Charleroi, and GCC drop to 1A next enrollment. That way we could have a Southeast oriented league of Clairton, Charleroi, GCC,Monessen, Serra, Frazier and maybe Geibel. Just maybe Jeannette would be more inclined to drop.

Lets face it, if Clairton and Serra was in the Eastern, Avonworth and N. Catholic was in the Big 7, and Sto Rox and Cornell was in the Blackhills, you'd be saying the same thing about Sto Rox right now.

But at the same time, shouldn't the WPIAL allow schools like Clairton to schedule more OOC games that give them the push you're talking about. Schools like Rochester, Farrell, McCort, and esp Taylor Riverside pushed Clairton. Remember Riverside had a 24-0 lead against the Bears.

Clairton's run isn't going to last forever and having 24-28 kids dressed a game isn't going to cut it at the 2A level. Let a Karvonn Thompson get hurt and our season is over. Heck there is only 1 Sophomore on this team. Our enrollment is in the bottom 4th of Class A. So why punish future class's that aren't as talented because of past talent like Trenton Coles, Boyd and Weatherspoon.

If Clairton was to move up it should've been 5-6 years ago when we had a much larger roster and not now. Its a little late in the game to be talking 2A IMO.

Anonymous said...

Mike if this was Facebook I would like your comment...

Friday Night Fan said...

Mike,

Do you know of any projections on teams that will be changing classifications in the upcoming realignment?

mike_kovak said...

FNF,

Joey previously found some numbers on a website where it looked like their could be some substantial movement.

I asked a few ADs I bumped into and they didn't know about those numbers. From what I gathered, a few schools (McGuffey, Burgettstown) among them believe them could be headed back down.

Joey Niklas said...

I'm hearing Blackhawk may drop to 2A, Bob Gregg of WJPA was saying Washington may drop to 1A as well as Burgettstown and McGuffey locally. Not sure if the WPIAL trys to put Ringold back into the Big 7 or not. Up north we could see Laurel drop to 1A. I'm just not sure if any of the traditional schools that bounce between 1A and 2A are moving up in Canavin, Sto Rox. Also a possibility of GCC dropping to 1A.

Mike couldn't we see some movement w/ Charleroi as well? I think you mentioned it in an email.

mike_kovak said...

Absolutely ... Charleroi and Burgettstown always seem to straddle the AA-A fence, while McGuffey is on the AAA-AA border.

Off the top of my head, Burgettstown is four over the Class A cutoff. Charleroi may be two over.

Not sure about Washington unless they have a considerable dropoff coming up. They're playing Class AAA basketball in the current cycle, a drop to Class A for football seems like a drastic fall in enrollment. But Bob Gregg knows his facts and figures, so it's probably going to be close.

Joey Niklas said...

If Charleroi and Burgettstown are 1,2-4 over then I'd say they'll be 2A next year. What we gotta figure is that the ceiling/floor for A/AA is going to lower.

Joey Niklas said...

The only positive to moving to 2A for Clairton is $$$ and more fan interest. Who would be more likely to drive to Clairton for a game SA fans or Avella fans, Steel Valley fans or Char Houston fans, South Fayette fans or Fort Cherry fans? And other than South Fayette and Quaker Valley, travel in the Century is much shorter bus rides. That's a net gain of money easily.

And this could create a new AA conference locally as well. McGuffey(if they drop) Washington, South Fayette, Charleroi, Waynesburg, and Quaker Valley. If Fort Cherry grows into a AA school(which is possible in the future) they fit nicely in this league. Add maybe SLS and KO to round it up to 8 otherwise.