Basketball standout, Lincoln Park transfer Josh Pratt eligible for playoffs after WPIAL hearing

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, September 2, 2025 | 4:46 PM

Lincoln Park transfer Josh Pratt, one of the state’s top basketball players, is fully eligible for his senior season following a WPIAL hearing Tuesday.

A hearing panel granted Pratt playoff eligibility, finding the former Aliquippa star qualified for a postseason waiver under PIAA rules, WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said.

The WPIAL had already cleared Pratt in July for regular season play. But most transfers in 10th grade or later are ineligible for the playoffs for one year under PIAA rules.

Pratt is a 6-foot-2 guard with Division I offers and was named the PIAA Class 3A player of the year in all-state voting last season. He averaged 22.2 points per game for Aliquippa, a WPIAL finalist and state semifinalist. The Quips won WPIAL and PIAA titles his sophomore year.

Pratt played for Lincoln Park as a freshman.

He recently narrowed his college options to Robert Morris, Columbia, Drexel and Northeastern, where his brother, LA Pratt, will be a senior guard this winter

Pratt’s younger brother Jeremiah, a sophomore, also transferred to Lincoln Park this summer and already was granted full eligibility by the WPIAL. The postseason waiver rule didn’t apply since he transferred before 10^th grade.

LA Pratt also attended Lincoln Park.

In a separate eligibility hearing Tuesday, the WPIAL denied postseason waiver requests for Moon transfers Jackson and Brody Bauman. The brothers transferred in the spring from Knoch after their father, Alan, resigned as the Knights’ basketball coach.

Jackson Bauman is a 6-2 senior point guard who averaged a team-best 16 points per game. Brody Bauman is a junior.

Seltzer said the hearing panel found they didn’t qualify for a postseason waiver.

To receive a waiver, a transfer must meet one of the specific criteria included in the PIAA bylaws:

• A local child-welfare-agency approved change in residence.

• A school-initiated administrative transfer within a school district.

• A transfer following a court order directing such transfer or change in residence.

• A transfer caused by a military reassignment of a parent.

• A transfer caused by release from a juvenile facility.

• A transfer following a school’s decision to terminate its interscholastic athletic program.

• A bona fide change of residence resulting from a change in employer of a parent.

• A transfer following an involuntary substantial change in financial condition and resources that compels withdrawal from a school.

• A transfer occurring after a school closes.

• A transfer resulting from bullying, harassment or other misconduct directed at the student.

• A transfer because of violence, or a threat of violence, directed against the student.

The PIAA says those requesting a waiver must provide supporting documentation.

Additionally, the WPIAL board can grant a postseason waiver for a reason not listed by the PIAA “upon proof by clear and convincing evidence by the student’s family that the transfer was necessitated by exceptional and unusual circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the student or the student’s family,” according to the PIAA bylaws.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Aliquippa, Lincoln Park