Butler can participate in District 10 football championship after court denies PIAA request

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, November 3, 2022 | 8:19 PM

Purchase Photo Options

The Butler football team will have a chance to win a District 10 championship thanks to a school district victory Thursday in court.

A Commonwealth Court judge denied a PIAA request that would’ve kept Butler out of the District 10 playoffs, clearing the way for the Golden Tornado to take part in the postseason. Butler will play Erie McDowell at 7 p.m. Friday in the Class 6A championship game.

“We’ve sort of been on a rollercoaster ride here for awhile with this whole issue,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. “We’re super excited for our kids to be able to go and compete.”

District 10 has only three Class 6A schools: Butler, Erie McDowell and Erie High. Butler (4-6) finished in second place among the three teams and qualified for the district finals by defeating Erie High, 37-20, on Sept. 23.

Yet, Butler’s postseason status was in limbo as the school district fought a months-long dispute with the WPIAL and PIAA, who both banned Butler from participating in the District 10 playoffs. That changed last week when a Butler County judge granted the school district’s request for an injunction, saying “the conduct of the PIAA amounts to arbitrary and capricious discrimination.”

The PIAA appealed and asked for that injunction to be lifted, but Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough denied that request Thursday after a hearing via video conference.

Butler is a WPIAL member school but since 2020 has played football in PIAA District 10, which is headquartered in Mercer County. In a letter sent Jan. 15, 2020, by then-WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley, the WPIAL gave Butler permission to join District 10 football as an “associate member.”

However, the WPIAL later said O’Malley’s letter contradicted the wishes of the WPIAL board and was sent without board approval. The WPIAL board had voted in December 2019 to deny Butler’s request for associate membership in District 10.

The WPIAL’s position was that Butler could play regular-season games in District 10 but opposed the team taking part in that district’s playoffs.

The discrepancy came to light only after Butler took part in the 2021 playoffs. The WPIAL board then voted to ban Butler from any future playoffs in District 10, a decision the PIAA upheld last February.

Butler then filed suit against the PIAA, a legal challenge that had remained unresolved.

The football team left WPIAL competition before the 2020 season after enduring two winless years in a row. The Golden Tornado had gone 15-78 combined in the previous decade. The school saw player participation dwindle and administrators were concerned the program would eventually fold.

The team went 2-8 in its first year in District 10, but finished 5-5 last fall and competed against Erie McDowell in the playoffs. McDowell won 40-21 and advanced to the state playoffs.

“I don’t believe Butler has made the playoffs in back to back years since the early ’90s, so they’ve done something that hasn’t been done in 30 years,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “That’s great for the team. That’s great for the community. … It’s really nice to see something positive with football at Butler because it hasn’t been good for a long time.”

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: Butler