Realignment brings plenty of change to local high school football
Every two-year enrollment cycle in Pennsylvania High School sports brings change, but the latest one completely shifted the landscape in local high school football.
Seven teams from the Observer-Reporter and The Almanac coverage areas either went up or down in classification.
The vast changes can be a lot to take in, but we’ll break it down so you can be ready for when the Friday night lights turn on again around the WPIAL.
Trinity moved up from Class 5A to 4A. South Fayette moved down from 5A to 4A. Belle Vernon went from 4A to 3A. Waynesburg bumped up from 2A to 3A. Chartiers-Houston jumped from A to 2A, McGuffey went down from 3A to 2A and Washington dropped from 2A to A.
Here’s a look at how each team’s move impacts them this fall.
Trinity
The Hillers are coming off their first conference title since 1986.
They were rewarded with a move into one of the toughest conferences in Class 5A.
They are in with defending WPIAL Class 5A champ Peters Township, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, West Allegheny, and Thomas Jefferson in the Allegheny Six Conference.
“The thing is we have been playing a very demanding nonconference schedule with 5A opponents,” Hillers coach Dan Knause said. “We’ve competed hard with those teams and they were very good games, but the just didn’t go our way. It wasn’t just Class 5A teams, it was top of the top, championship caliber teams. I view that experience as a blessing to prepare for this season.”
Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park were playoff teams that brought back talent and West Allegheny welcomes back nine-time WPIAL champion coach Bob Palko to again lead the program. Thomas Jefferson was a perennial contender in Class 4A, but Trinity did beat the Jaguars last year on its way to a conference title.
South Fayette
The Lions were left out of the Class 5A tournament last year after failing to earn a wild card in the eyes of the steering committee.
Now they’ll have the chance to settle back into Class 4A, a spot they haven’t been in since 2019.
That year the Lions won the Northwest Eight Conference and made the WPIAL semifinals before losing to Belle Vernon.
“It’s business as usual,” South Fayette coach Marty Spieler noted. “if you want to be one of the premier teams in the WPIAL, then you’ve got to act like a premier team. We’re embracing the mood. People say 5A is tougher but we play wherever the WPIAL tells us to play. We’re ready for the challenge.”
South Fayette is in a conference with a Ringgold team hoping to take the next step, as well as Chartiers Valley, Laurel Highlands, Uniontown and Albert Gallatin.
Uniontown and Albert Gallatin are returning to the WPIAL after playing an independent schedule. Albert Gallatin went 10-0 last year, but played only one WPIAL opponent, Greensburg Salem.
Belle Vernon
Things went pretty well for Belle Vernon the last time it was in Class 3A. Led by standout running back Quinton Martin, the Leopards won back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA championships in 2022 and ’23.
They made the playoffs in ’24, but missed in Scott Bryer’s first season at the helm last year.
A return to 3A could elevate the Leopards back to the perennial power they had become under Matt Humbert.
The Leopards are in with a lot of Westmoreland County rivals like Derry, Greensburg Salem, Mt. Pleasant and Southmoreland as well as, Elizabeth-Forward and Waynesburg.
Waynesburg
Waynesburg made the playoffs three years in a row in Class 2A, losing to South Allegheny in the first round both times in the last cycle and Imani Christian in 2023.
Now the Raiders will step up to a classification they haven’t played in since 2018.
Waynesburg had a three-year run in Class 3A from 2016-18 when the PIAA expanded football from four to six classifications. The Raiders were a mainstay in Class 2A under the old four-classification system.
McGuffey
There is probably not another team in the WPIAL that will welcome a change of scenery as much as McGuffey.
The Highlanders went winless in two seasons in Class 3A, so moving down a class provides a fresh start and the possibility for a long-awaited victory for third-year coach Nate Parry.
“We were the smallest Triple-A school in the WPIAL and the whole state last year,” Parry said. “We missed the cut by one student. In addition to the conference we played in, the nonconference schedule we played was just difficult. We opened with Washington, which we always liked playing them. Then we played Trinity, West Allegheny, two Quad-A schools, and later in the season we played Highlands, which was a top-8 Triple-A school. That was our nonconference schedule, so you couple that with Avonworth, Central Valley, Hopewell, North Catholic in conference, it was tough. Everybody was excited to move down to Double-A.”
McGuffey is in with some teams that moved up from Class A like Bishop Canevin and Chartiers-Houston as well as Keystone Oaks, Carlynton, Quaker Valley and Seton LaSalle.
Chartiers-Houston
Coming off its best season in a quarter century, Chartiers-Houston will look to take what they built and continue to progress while stepping up in class.
The Bucs upset South Side Beaver, 26-21, in the first round of the Class A playoffs before losing to Laurel in the quarterfinals.
It was the Bucs’ first playoff win since a 14-7 victory over Clairton in 2000.
Chartiers-Houston has not played above Class A since 2021. That year the Bucs made the playoffs and lost to Mohawk, 34-12, in the first round.
Washington
The Prexies are entering new territory, playing in the WPIAL’s smallest classification for the first time.
Coming off a season in which they made the Class 2A semifinals, the Prexies figure to be one of the top teams in Class A.
They will have a new quarterback after the graduation of Tristan Reed, but return plenty of key players.
The change allows Washington to play county rivals Fort Cherry, Burgettstown and Bentworth. Brentwood, Monessen and Sto-Rox are also in Washington’s conference.
Washington will host Fort Cherry on Oct. 30 for the regular-season finale.
“I think it’s exciting anytime that you are playing teams that are close to your size and there’s a few more Washington County teams on the schedule,” Wash High coach Mike Bosnic said. “I don’t know if it is too much of a difference. Some of these teams we’ve played in past years and are familiar with them.”
Observer-Reporter Sports Editor Chris Dugan and The Almanac Editor Eleanor Bailey contributed to this story.