George Guido: Public/private legislation stirs controversy

By: George Guido
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 | 5:09 PM

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It didn’t take long for State House Bill 1600 to get into committee and to generate controversy.

HB 1600 was offered last week by state Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Beaver/Butler/Lawrence). The bill would create separate PIAA playoffs for public and private high school teams.

Besides holding separate playoffs, the bill would do away with the transfer rule, something the PIAA has tried to strengthen within the last year.

Also, private and parochial schools would have proportional representation on PIAA district boards, such as the WPIAL. Public schools also would be prohibited from organizing conferences and schedules to avoid including private schools.

Rep. Bernstine’s bill was referred to the legislature’s Education Committee Monday. But the committee reportedly met for just 14 minutes and the bill didn’t come up.

Instead, Rep. Bernstine showed up at the PIAA Oversight Committee meeting and those present say the state rep got into a heated discussion with PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi over the bill, according to a report on Twitter by a Mercer County sportscaster.

The PIAA and the WPIAL have misgivings over the bill, particularly the transfer rule.

A student-athlete can transfer to another school at any time, even during the season if his or her team has played at least 50 percent of its schedule.

In other words, let’s say a football team starts out 0-4 as part of a nine-game schedule. A player could transfer to another school that looks headed for the playoffs.

For example, let’s say the 0-4 school has a pretty good quarterback, beset by some bad luck or not much talent around him.

The 4-0 school’s quarterback suffers an injury and, suddenly, the 0-4 school’s quarterback is recruited.

Wash, rinse and repeat with other schools off to a poor start.

Does anybody really want to go down that path?

Also, another issue that has to be addressed is an athlete who wants to play football at one school in the fall, then transfers to another school in the winter to play basketball.

Here’s how the public/private controversy has evolved:

In 1972, the state Legislature passed a bill that gave PIAA membership and all accompanied privileges.

It was a different time. The Baby Boom was still in effect and there were numerous student-athletes for sports teams to choose from.

Also, the Catholic high schools were often sponsored by parishes and had sort of their own developmental tree.

When Penn Hills was in the midst of its great run in the 1970s, a number of Penn Hills residents played for Central Catholic. It was barely noticed.

But as the parish-related schools closed after the collapse of heavy industry, the programs depended on transfers to stay viable.

Needless to say, this a story that will be interesting to follow.

Valley trendsetting

As the decade comes to a close, it’s time to look at how successful Westmoreland County schools have been in softball.

It all started with Valley’s state championship team of 2011.

Since then, Hempfield won three PIAA titles from 2016-18, Yough won it all in 2016, Mt. Pleasant in 2017 and Penn-Trafford this year.

Notable deaths

Two people associated with high school sports died this past week.

• Gene Steratore Sr., father of the well-known NFL referee-turned TV analyst, died at age 84 in Morgantown.

The elder Steratore had a 45-year officiating career that included more than 1,000 high school basketball games, Big East and Atlantic 10 games, six Army-Navy games, nine bowl games and two NCAA basketball tournaments.

He graduated from Washington High School in 1952 and played on the WPIAL basketball runner-up and the football team that was knocked out of the WPIAL finals with a loss to Donora.

Besides son Gene, his son Tony officiated NFL games and son Michael is a college basketball official.

• Blaine Pendleton, a key player on Ford City’s 1962 WPIAL basketball finalist, died in Pittsburgh at 74.

The Glassers, as the school as called then, beat storied programs like Midland and Farrell in the WPIAL playoffs before losing the title game to Uniontown.

Pendleton earned a basketball scholarship to Clarion, was drafted, and served two years in Vietnam.

Pendleton dedicated his life to public service. He taught for a time in the Pittsburgh public schools and headed a group that rehabilitated older homes and made them affordable to economically disadvantaged populations.

Tags: Valley