PIAA board favors 6 classes for girls volleyball, rejects plan to expand track to 3

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, July 17, 2024 | 10:37 PM

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STATE COLLEGE — The PIAA wants to increase girls volleyball to six classifications, but a request to expand track and field to three was rejected by the board.

Girls volleyball has four classifications currently, but the board voted Wednesday to tentatively add two more. The proposal must pass two more votes, but the PIAA staff was optimistic the sport could expand for the 2026-27 school year.

PIAA chief operating officer Mark Byers said girls volleyball has seen significant growth in recent years.

“It’s been a recommendation on more than one occasion to expand to six classifications,” Byers said. “It has to do with the number of schools sponsoring girls volleyball. That has expanded exponentially.”

Girls volleyball (622) has nearly caught softball (626) in total teams. Softball has had six classifications since 2017.

“When we look at it as related to other sports, they’re deserving,” Byers said.

Girls basketball, another sport with six classifications, has 704 teams statewide. Boys volleyball has 235 teams in three classifications.

The board approved the expansion during a two-day summer workshop at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center.

However, track coaches hoping to see their sport expanded must wait. The PIAA track and field committee had unanimously recommended expanding from two to three classifications, but the PIAA board denied that request Wednesday.

“The biggest difference — unlike just adding a (championship) game or two — we’re potentially adding another 1,400 athletes,” Byers said. “I’m understanding of our steering committee’s desire to increase representation from the schools. I’m just not certain, at this time, three classes gets it, because it’s at the expense of some of our better kids qualifying now in either 2A or 3A.”

More than 2,800 athletes qualified for the state track championships this year in Shippensburg. Increasing that number isn’t a workable option, Byers said, adding that the alternative would be to divide the current 2,800 into three championships instead of two.

However, under that scenario, athletes in Class 2A or A with slower times or shorter distances would likely qualify at the expense of 3A athletes posting better marks, he said.

“That’s the balance,” Byers said. “Making sure we’re still able to advance our best kids, but at the same time taking a look at that representation.”

Byers recommended that the PIAA study the current dividing line between Class 2A and 3A enrollments. He said 2A has a number of small schools with only a handful of athletes on the roster, which skews the classification numbers.

“It significantly overstates the number of small schools that are participating,” Byers said, “which drives that enrollment break down when you try to put 50% (of teams) in 2A and 50% in 3A.”

As a potential solution, Byers suggested a 60/40 split with the largest 40% of schools in 3A and the remaining 60% in 2A.

The 50/50 cutoff line between 2A and 3A for next spring is 260 boys and 251 girls. Like with volleyball, any potential changes to track classifications likely wouldn’t occur until the 2026-27 school year.

“If we don’t split (the teams) right down the middle, schools that are right around 300 (boys or girls) aren’t participating against the 3A schools,” Byers said.

In the WPIAL, for example, the Valley and Derry girls are the smallest schools in 3A track next season, each with 253 girls, according to PIAA enrollment numbers. Both were 2A schools last season. Hempfield (751), Butler (818), Seneca Valley (922) and North Allegheny (1,008) are the largest schools in 3A girls.

Byers said landing just above that cut line has affected some teams significantly.

“They may have been qualifying 12 or 14 kids in years prior (in 2A),” Byers said, “and they’re now only qualifying one or two to the championships (in 3A).”

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.