Jan 5, 2026 8 min read

By John Sacco

Contributing writer

A handful of things were certainties when dealing with Dr. Bob Lombardi in his time as the PIAA’s executive director: He was true to the rules. He was true to the student-athletes, he was true to himself and the PIAA.

It was announced earlier last year that Lombardi would retire, effective at the end of 2025.

Mark Byers takes over for Lombardi. Byers had been on the PIAA administrative staff for 25 years and was its chief operating officer.

Lombardi had been on the PIAA staff since 1988 and became executive director in 2012, taking over for Brad Cashman.

Lombardi was present, prepared and accessible.

And while he didn’t always deliver the news someone or some school wanted to hear, he presented it with professionalism, confidence and resolve.

“You could go around the nation and find that getting in touch with an executive director is not an easy task in many state offices,” said Melissa Mertz, who previously worked as PIAA associate director and was a friend and co-worker of Lombardi for 30-plus years.

“Bob always made himself accessible. I’m sure it had to be a bit stressful just because, as you can imagine, he’s had a lot of big items on his plate. When I think of Bob, and the impact he had on me, I would say he was a man of relationships. I think it is what separated him from the masses. It was authentic.

He truly enjoyed having relationships with people and he understood the importance of it.”

Lombardi oversaw or spearheaded several developments and initiatives with the PIAA. Some of those were controversial:

* Perhaps the biggest change was a move from four classifications to six in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball, starting with the 2016-17 school year. Some welcomed the addition of more classifications while others still criticize it. The WPIAL is part of the PIAA and follows the PIAA’s classifications. Also under Lombardi, the PIAA added classifications in a few other sports.

* The implementation of the competition classification formula, where teams are bumped up in classification if they go far in the PIAA playoffs in two successive years and have a certain number of transfers on their team.

* Pennsylvania moved to fourth in the country in terms of student-athlete participation during the 2024-25 school year, behind only Texas, California and Ohio. According to a National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) survey, Pennsylvania had 333,123 students participate in athletics in the 2024-25 school year.

* He also oversaw the addition of three girls sports — competitive spirit, wrestling and flag football. The PIAA and WPIAL will sanction girls flag football beginning in the spring of 2026, but WPIAL and PIAA championships won’t be staged until 2027.

Lombardi, who relishes spending more time with his wife and two adult daughters, recently turned 70.

“I think at 70 is the time for people to consider, turning the business over to other folks who are very capable and a little younger. Everybody has a shelf life and I have reached mine.”

The good Dr.

While Lombardi’s tenure touched all parts of the state, he made his mark on local schools, administrators and news media.

“Our work together on multiple issues on multiple levels involving the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters brought us closer together,” said Bob Gregg, sales manager, sports director and longtime play-by-play broadcaster for WJPA Radio.

“It got to the point where we were going to places and being treated poorly as media members, not just us but others. He took action to address some of those things and to the point of telling site hosts to make changes or face not being granted hosting postseason games.”

Former Canon-McMillan High School athletic director Guy Montecalvo listened to Lombardi give a talk to a room full of athletic directors at State College. During the question-and-answer part, Lombardi was getting bombarded with questions about the PIAA separating public and private schools.

“He was taking a lot of criticism from the ADs from public schools about why he wasn’t doing something to make competition more equitable. He stood there a long time. Finally, I raised my hand, stood up and spoke. Montecalvo asked Lombardi if it was true that the state legislature controls that public-private issue?”

In 1973, the state legislature ruled private schools were to compete with public schools.

“He could have addressed it and passed the buck,” Montecalvo said. “But he didn’t. What does that tell you about him?”

Montecalvo continued: “his professionalism and commitment to doing the best job to promote high school athletics in Pennsylvania was to me always obvious.

“Bob was just a guy who had a genuine concern for kids and for the well-being of promoting athletics in Pennsylvania. He had a charisma to him and I always enjoyed talking to him. He just had a welcoming, friendly attitude and that’s not always the case for somebody who’s in a higher-level administrator position.”

It’s not often to see one in his position scan tickets at championship events, which Mertz said he did. He also was one to become friends with a media member who he had to chide in one specific instance.

“I’m out on the field interviewing (former Wash High baseball coach) Bob Peton and all of the sudden someone grabs my arm and says to get off the field,” said WJPA’s Mark Uriah after Washington defeated Wyalusing in the 1998 PIAA Class AA championship. “That was the first time I met Lombardi. I shouldn’t have been out there, but I was following (Bob Gregg’s instructions).

“It wasn’t a good first impression for either of us. But from that point on, he was great with me. I just really like the guy for a lot of reasons, have a lot of respect for him. A guy in his position is going to take a lot of heat and people just see things through their own lens. The thing I like about him most is he’s going to tell you how things are. You may not like it and he’s not going to be mean about it. He was very matter of fact and followed the rules.”

Brian Geyer, Peters Township athletic director and PIAA board member, has had a unique view of Lombardi.

“Being on that PIAA board was really eye-opening for the last three-and-a-half years,” Geyer said. “We’ve had questions that I’ve had to call and get answered. Bob was always back to me within five minutes.

“He is a human and I don’t think that a lot of people saw that. I think everybody saw him as PIAA boss and distant. I had the complete opposite experience with Bob. The guy really liked to celebrate the achievements of student-athletes. I thought he was fair and consistent across the board.”

Lasting legacy

One of Lombardi’s greatest accomplishments, if not the greatest, was guiding the PIAA winter sports to conclusion in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020.

The idea was to allow the kids to continue playing.

“We were going to take things just like Gov. (Thomas) Wolf said, day-by-day, step-by-step – go brick-by-brick just to see how things go, and we’ll adjust. But we were going to try to get this done, because it was important to students and kids and athletes and their communities,” Lombardi said. “We did that and we did it right. (NFL reporter) Adam Schefter got on ESPN and said the Big 10 was shutting down. But ‘boy, they’re playing high school sports in Pennsylvania.'”

“Was it perfect? No. But we knew what we were doing, and we did it in a step-by-step measured basis, to make sure kids were safe — every step of the way – with the support of our medical people. We were very proud that we got it done.”

Lombardi’s message was simple.

“It’s about young people playing athletics,” he said. “And that’s important, at our level. It’s a foundation, life lessons to make them better citizens, better moms and dads, and integral parts of their community.”

Gregg said Lombardi’s persistence and leadership was monumental.

“Mental health people will tell you that COVID time period was the most damaging to teenagers,” Gregg said. “Bob finally took the position like, OK, enough of this. We’ve done this. We did all this but it’s time to be back together. He fought the governor on it. And that was a hard fight. It’s his legacy.”

Mertz, who now works in Maryland as the director of compliance and communication for Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, thinks the secret to Lombardi’s success was building relationships while providing consistent leadership.

“It’s so easy for people around the state to say the state this and the state that,” Mertz said. “When we get grouped into that, it’s like we’re not human. We all have children. We all have kids who play, we have emotions and we have feelings. Bob had his way and the best thing he did was humanize the PIAA.”

John Sacco writes a column for the Observer-Reporter about local sports history.