WPIAL board unanimously rejects Farrell’s request to rejoin district

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 | 5:47 PM

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The WPIAL board voted unanimously Tuesday to deny Farrell’s request to join the league as a member school, citing the cost of transportation and tight athletic department budgets.

The board voted 17-0 with three abstentions.

Still, the PIAA has the ultimate say and could decide to put Farrell in the WPIAL. But after Tuesday’s vote, Farrell athletic director Anthony Pegues said he was unsure whether his school would continue with efforts to join the WPIAL.

“We’ll see if we’re going to move to the next step or not,” said Pegues, who attended the WPIAL meeting at the league office in Scott. He added that Farrell’s other option would be to “just stay in District 10 and hopefully things get better there.”

Farrell administrators had said racial incidents involving opposing teams motivated their effort to leave District 10 for the WPIAL. Pegues was part of an hour-long video conference call with the WPIAL board last week during which Farrell made its case.

Pegues said he’d talk with his superintendent and school board before deciding whether to continue.

The Steelers competed as a WPIAL member for six decades before leaving in 2006 to join District 10, which includes schools from Mercer County and other areas in the northwest corner of the state. WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer described Tuesday’s vote as merely a recommendation to the PIAA.

“The PIAA always has the final decision,” Seltzer said. “The PIAA may just say, ‘You’re taking them.’ Then we’re taking them.”

The PIAA board meets Jan. 24.

Farrell’s process to rejoin the WPIAL began in November when the school board voted to move its sports teams south, and it gained momentum in December when the District 10 committee granted Farrell’s release.

However, the school’s hopes were dimmed Tuesday when the WPIAL board voted to deny its request to join. The board did so largely to avoid saddling current members with added transportation costs, Seltzer said.

“This time of year, (school districts) start to create their budgets for next year,” he said. “Most of them already are looking for ways to limit their budgets so they don’t have to raise taxes. For our board members, that was a major concern with them, about the extra cost.”

Seltzer noted that when Farrell left the WPIAL in 2006, its school administrators complained then about travel to WPIAL schools. A number of WPIAL board members on Tuesday shared similar concerns about the added costs of traveling north.

“In my mind, I think that was kind of the easy way out,” Pegues said. “By saying, ‘Oh well, budget costs, there’s going to be more travel.’ But that’s their prerogative.”

Farrell first joined the WPIAL in 1944 and had tremendous success.

The girls volleyball team won 20 WPIAL titles, which remains a league record. The boys basketball team won 13 titles, which ties Aliquippa for second-most in WPIAL history. The football team has six WPIAL titles.

“It wasn’t like we were never in this district before,” said Pegues, who coaches Farrell’s football team and played in the WPIAL himself as a student. “We spent 50 years in this district, probably when travel was at its all-time worst.”

The school competes now in Class 2A for football, boys volleyball and track, while its boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball teams are in Class A.

Seltzer noted previously that Lawrence County has no boys volleyball teams, meaning Farrell’s closest opponent could come from Beaver County.

“I get it,” Pegues said. “Some schools would have to budget for longer travel, just like we do. I think the conference we would’ve been in for the majority of our sports wouldn’t have been that much difference (for us).”

Farrell’s boys basketball team asked the PIAA to voluntarily “play up” to Class 4A for the next two seasons, which would be a benefit in District 10, where nearby schools share that classification. However, if Farrell successfully joined the WPIAL, Pegues said the team likely would‘ve asked to return to a lower classification.

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.