WPIAL keeps football games on Friday despite rain; Westinghouse now Thursday

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 4:36 PM

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Don’t forget to bring an umbrella or two.

The WPIAL plans to keep its playoff football games on Friday night as scheduled despite a weather forecast that predicts heavy rains across Pennsylvania from the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole. Another PIAA district moved games to Thursday, but the WPIAL is standing firm.

“It’s an outdoor-weather sport,” said WPIAL administrator Vince Sortino, who sent an email update to athletic directors Wednesday morning. “As of right now, we’re on as scheduled.”

PIAA District 5 rescheduled its games, including a PIAA playoff contest between Berlin Brothersvalley and City League champion Westinghouse. Their game was moved to 7 p.m. Thursday at Somerset.

The WPIAL has 16 quarterfinal games and four semifinals Friday night.

Sortino’s email provided schools a reminder on the PIAA policy for lightning safety, but the WPIAL didn’t believe thunderstorms would be an issue Friday.

“At this time of the year, knock on wood, you don’t get a lot of lightning,” Sortino said. “It’s just the rain.”

However, there could be a lot of rain, maybe a couple of inches. The WPIAL playoff games are scheduled on artificial turf fields, so the weather won’t impact the playing surfaces.

But flooding in communities hosting the games could be a concern.

“It becomes an issue if kids can’t get here,” Thomas Jefferson football coach and athletic director Bill Cherpak said. “That has happened here before when a hurricane caused flooding everywhere, and our game got moved to Monday. Parts of our district flood very easily.

“The amount of rain they’re talking about is crazy.”

Cherpak said safety becomes his concern as a school administrator, but as a former football player, he always enjoyed games in the rain.

“We’ll be practicing with wet footballs and doing everything we can do,” he said.

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.