Judge says ineligible Bishop Canevin QB Brady Wagner can play next 2 weeks

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 | 2:07 PM

Bishop Canevin junior quarterback Brady Wagner, ruled ineligible by the WPIAL and PIAA, can play at least for the next two weeks, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan granted a request for a temporary restraining order against the PIAA that allows Wagner to compete in the football team’s next two games, said attorney Steve Toprani, who represents Wagner and his parents, Ian and Natalie. Subsequently, the court will consider a lawsuit filed by Wagner’s parents seeking an injunction that would let him play longer.

Wagner, who transferred from Mt. Lebanon, was ruled ineligible by the WPIAL following an April 30 hearing, where the league found that his transfer was related to athletics. The PIAA upheld the WPIAL decision on appeal July 29.

The 6-foot-2, 170-pounder was in contention throughout the summer to start at quarterback for Bishop Canevin. The Crusaders host Seton LaSalle on Saturday at Dormont Stadium and visit Steel Valley on Sept. 5. Both are nonconference games.

“Brady is going to be at practice with the optimism of being a full participant in Saturday’s game,” Toprani said. “We still have to talk with the coaches to make sure everybody’s comfort level is there, but I fully expect to see him under center Saturday spinning the football. That’s exciting.”

The PIAA has warned schools in the past that if a player gains and later loses eligibility through court proceedings, a team could be forced to forfeit wins. Toprani said the PIAA has raised that concern here, too.

PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The Wagners’ lawsuit was filed last week in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, but the PIAA had the case moved to federal court because it raised some constitutional issues, Toprani said. The family filed an amended complaint Monday seeking a temporary restraining order, and Horan held a 90-minute hearing Tuesday morning.

“(The PIAA) argued that I had no basis to pursue rights for Brady in state court, and then they argued we had no right to do that in federal court,” Toprani said. “Thankfully we got a judge who heard the facts and the evidence and had a different viewpoint.”

A date for the subsequent hearing to decide the preliminary injunction was not yet scheduled.

“We will be back in court very soon to litigate the issues,” Toprani said.

In their lawsuit, Wagner’s parents said they transferred Brady to Bishop Canevin in search of a faith-based education and smaller class sizes, according to court documents, noting that the small Catholic school in East Carnegie could better help him manage his Type 1 diabetes.

“The WPIAL and PIAA … disregarded the compelling and uncontroverted evidence that the Wagner family transferred their son, Brady, to a more suited school setting out of compelling personal safety reasons,” says the Wagners’ lawsuit, “and instead found a transfer motivated by an athletic intent upon rumor, conjecture and inadmissible hearsay.”

Mt. Lebanon had flagged Wagner’s transfer as potentially motivated by athletics, and the WPIAL hearing panel voted 10-0 to deny eligibility. In a May 6 letter sent to Bishop Canevin detailing the decision, WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said the panel found “a reasonable likelihood that Brady’s transfer from Mt. Lebanon to Bishop Canevin was materially motivated in some way by an athletic purpose relating to football.”

The WPIAL declared him ineligible in football through Jan. 17, 2026.

The letter, included in court documents, noted that one of Bishop Canevin’s assistant coaches, Marcus Ademilola, was previously a ninth-grade coach at Mt. Lebanon and coached a 7-on-7 program that included Wagner. According to the letter, Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan testified he received information that Wagner had taken part in a private workout with Ademilola shortly before his transfer.

Ademilola is no longer an assistant coach at Bishop Canevin. Previous Crusaders head coach Rich Johnson resigned in May, and Ademilola is not an assistant on the staff of new coach Rod Steele.

The WPIAL also noted in the letter that Wagner applied for enrollment in October at both Bishop Canevin and Seton LaSalle soon after Mt. Lebanon coach Greg Perry told Wagner he wouldn’t be the Blue Devils’ starting quarterback this year.

In court filings, however, the Wagners said they’d started exploring parochial schools in March 2024. According to the lawsuit, Brady Wagner was scheduled to attend a Bishop Canevin open house March 1, 2024, applied for admission in October, was accepted in November and registered in December.

The lawsuit claimed the WPIAL board holds a negative bias toward Catholic school quarterbacks. Toprani also represented Seton LaSalle transfer Anthony Smith, who was ruled ineligible for this season after transferring from Southmoreland.

The lawsuit noted that Smith, North Catholic transfer Joey Felitsky and Central Catholic transfer Owen Herrick were found ineligible in recent years by the WPIAL “despite granting eligibility to other non-Catholic, non-quarterback players under spurious circumstances, drawing media and public criticism.”

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: Bishop Canevin