Choosing Hampton’s seed becomes tricky decision with leading scorer ineligible

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 1:42 AM

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The chairman of the WPIAL basketball committee largely avoided one of Monday’s most-interesting debates, since it was a topic close to his heart.

Where to seed the Hampton boys?

As a section champion with a 20-2 record, Hampton has a resume worthy of a top two seed. But the Talbots must play without their best player, junior Peter Kramer, who’s ineligible for the postseason under PIAA transfer rules.

So, the committee faced a relatively new dilemma.

Should a team be seeded based on its regular-season body of work? Or should a team be seeded based on its perceived playoff potential?

It’s a tricky decision, and one the WPIAL committee has addressed before. But rarely, if ever, has the PIAA transfer rule impacted a WPIAL basketball player of Kramer’s caliber.

The 6-foot-4 guard is a 20-point scorer and one of the top players in the WPIAL. He won a WPIAL 3A title last winter at Shady Side Academy before transferring home to Hampton.

“Obviously, we’re losing our best player. Everybody knows that,” said committee chairman Bill Cardone, the athletic director at Hampton. “Just like ‘Remember the Titans,’ you can’t replace a Bertier. His situation was a little more drastic, but you can’t replace a Peter Kramer.”

The committee ultimately decided to seed Hampton fourth in Class 4A, behind No. 1 Lincoln Park (21-1), No. 2 Laurel Highlands (19-2) and No. 3 Uniontown (18-3). Highlands (19-3), which finished second to Hampton in Section 1, was fifth.

Cardone agreed with the decision.

North Catholic (16-6) received the sixth seed, with Section 4 co-champions Quaker Valley (14-6) and South Allegheny (18-4) seeded seventh and eighth.

“Our kids play hard,” Cardone said. “Without the other five, six, seven players we have, we wouldn’t be where we are. I think we’re a good team. … We’re at the four, and I think deservingly so.”

The committee has similarly downgraded teams in years past when a star player was lost to injury.

Cardone said he largely stayed out of the 4A discussion. He noted that almost everyone serving on the 13-person basketball committee “has a team in the horse race,” but said those loyalties don’t become an issue in the room.

“I have never ever been in a committee meeting where somebody just tried to tout their team, tout their team, tout their team,” he said. “They’re in there doing what should be done.”

The PIAA transfer rule was implemented before the 2018-19 season. All transfers after the start of 10th grade are postseason ineligible for one year unless they qualify for a waiver. The criteria required for those waivers are very specific and included in the PIAA rules.

For instance, a waiver can be granted “following a bona fide change of residence resulting from a change in employer of a parent” or after “an involuntary substantial change in financial condition and resources that compels withdrawal from a school.”

Among the other listed criteria are transfers related to bullying or threats of violence at a previous school, a military-related move by a parent or a court-adjudicated transfer.

For cases that don’t fit any of the criteria, a waiver can be granted if “clear and convincing evidence” that the transfer was needed for “exceptional and unusual circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the student and the student’s family.”

The WPIAL denied Kramer’s waiver request in September, saying his situation didn’t fit any of the criteria. His PIAA appeal also was denied.

The strict transfer rule was implemented as a way for the PIAA to address competitive-balance concerns, but has drawn criticism in the past five years.

“My personal opinion on the rule is, the rule is the rule and that’s what we abide by,” Cardone said. “But it is difficult because I can see on one side the rule is trying to control what goes on in regard to transfers. And I see the other side, where some people follow the rules and some people circumvent the rules by not telling the truth.”

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.

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