CTK 2015 – The River Hawks Have Landed

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, August 2, 2015 | 9:58 AM

You could say this is one large step for a new high school, a couple of not-so-giant changes for the WPIAL football alignment. While the second year of a two year enrollment cycle rarely offers any changes to alignment, the merger of Kittanning and Ford City High Schools into Armstrong High School has caused the district to shuffle some things affecting three conferences in Class AAA and Class AA.

In their first season, the Armstrong River Hawks will play in the Class AAA Greater Allegheny Conference against new rivals Franklin Regional, Gateway, Greensburg-Salem, Hampton, Hollidaysburg, Indiana, Knoch and Mars.

The Yough Cougars, which moved up from Double-A to Triple-A a year ago, move from the Greater Allegheny Conference where they will form the new Big Ten Conference with Albert Gallatin, Belle Vernon, Elizabeth Forward, Laurel Highlands, Ringgold, Thomas Jefferson, Trinity, Uniontown and West Mifflin.

With Kittanning and Ford City gone from Class AA’s Allegheny Conference, the Summit Academy Knights leave the Midwestern Athletic Conference and slide over to the Allegheny Conference to face the likes of Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Highlands, Shady Side Academy, Valley and West Shamokin.

After enrollment numbers are gathered this fall and the PIAA sets the classification cutoff points, the WPIAL will announce a new two-year alignment for football and other fall sports in January of 2016.

Tags: Armstrong, Ford City, Kittanning, Yough