WPIAL rules East Allegheny transfer eligible for regular-season football but not playoffs

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, September 27, 2022 | 8:25 PM

East Allegheny junior Amir Rollins, a transfer from Penn Hills, is allowed to play football in the regular season, but he remains ineligible for the playoffs, the WPIAL ruled Tuesday.

Penn Hills administrators had flagged his transfer as potentially motivated by athletics, but the WPIAL board didn’t find evidence to support that claim, WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said, allowing Rollins to join the Wildcats for the remainder of the regular season.

Rollins attended an eligibility hearing Tuesday in Green Tree along with his parents and school representatives.

The running back and defensive back can take part in East Allegheny’s remaining regular-season games, but the WPIAL board said Rollins didn’t qualified for a postseason waiver. Under PIAA rules, all transfers after the start of 10th grade are ineligible for the postseason for one year, unless they meet specific criteria.

Penn Hills’ representatives, which included football coach Charles Morris, testified that Rollins had walked out of a summer workout and left the football team in a disagreement with coaches, but Rollins and his family said that wasn’t why he transferred to East Allegheny.

“I think the testimony of the family (convinced the board) that wasn’t the reason,” Seltzer said.

Rollins’ hearing was one of three held Tuesday. The others involved athletes requesting postseason eligibility, and the WPIAL denied waiver requests from all three.

Norwin’s Aiden Pham, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s Rylee Bush and Chartiers-Houston’s Trevor Popek are ineligible for postseason.

All three, along with Rollins, can appeal their postseason status to the PIAA.

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: East Allegheny