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Theres no way they should be allowed to stay in the Heritage. They will have close to 100 more boys than MC which is the next biggest school. Just do away with conferences and play according to your classification.

Wait a minute, play by classification??? So you 'd rather play Bishop McCort, Bishop Guilfoyle, and Bishop Carrol than the perennial Ligonier Valley powerhouse??? Come on now... Think about what you just said.

I think Mccort would choose to move back up and play AA. Carroll might not have a program in a few years.

Observations:
I know there are some that are not fans of D-7, but I think D-6 could run a leauge by most classifications...Of course 4-A pretty much has moved to d-7...I would imagine it would look something like this...I am not sure how different this is from the current format.

AAA/AAAA (I guess this would be run like D-8 with a full playoff to crown the champ and respective classification members moving on to states within thier class despite who won the championship. Of course they would have to find at least four out of conference games. Not sure if this works)

State College Area High School AAAA 1028
Indian Valley High School AAA 421
Greater Johnstown High School AAA 393
Bellefonte Area High School AAA 380
Central Mountain High School AAAA 559

AA West League: (Top four from each in a seeded playoff)

Cambria Heights High School AA 188 W
Forest Hills High School AA 300 W
Penn Cambria High School AA 246 W
Richland High School AA 238 W
Central Cambria High School AA 258 W
Ligonier Valley High School AA 197 W
Somerset Area High School AA 308 W
Westmont Hilltop High School AA 246 W

AA East League

Bald Eagle Area High School AA 262 E
Central High School AA 271 E
Huntingdon Area High School AA 289 E
Lewistown Area High School AA 322 E
Penns Valley Area High School AA 221 E
Philipsburg Osceola Area High School AA 250 E
Tyrone Area High School AA 267 E
Mount Union Area High School AA 187 E
Chestnut Ridge

A East League: (At least top three from each and some wild cards)

Bishop Guilfoyle High School A 129
Bellwood Antis High School A 177 -
Juniata Valley High School A 111
Moshannon Valley High School A 142
Southern Huntingdon County High School A 167
West Branch High School A 167
Williamsburg High School A 77
Tussey Mountain

Central League:

Portage Area High School A 121 E
Bishop Carroll High School A 91
Bishop McCort High School A 160
Conemaugh Valley High School A 105
Ferndale Area High School A 90
Northern Cambria High School A 148
Glendale High School A 106 -
Claysburg Kimmel High School A 107

West League: (Not too different from current heritage)

Blairsville High School A 151
Homer Center High School A 131
Marion Center Area High School A 186
Penns Manor Area High School A 142
Purchase Line High School A 138
Saltsburg High School A 102
United High School A 171
Blacklick Valley High School A 91

...Second Lig Valley would most likely play in the current Interstate conference...I am sure they could possible beat 3-4 of the current programs on a down trend...I.E. Southmoreland

here are the numbers for the 10-11 and 11-12 school years for male students in grades 9-11 as reported by schools at the end of 09:

laurel valley: 75 males
ligonier valley: 197 males

a combined school would have 272 males in grades 9-11 IF all students went to it instead of choosing another option. this would put them at aa in football, aaa in boys bball.

the largest other heritage schools in terms of male enrollment for this 2-year cycle:
united 179
marion center 177

http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/document ... otball.pdf

If those numbers are legit, then there is no reason why the combined school cannot compete in the WPIAL with the other AA football programs. Because, it is no longer a numbers issue. It now becomes an intelligence issue and a dedication issue. Don Bailey won about 275 of those 300 games with the worst weight rooms in the solar system. Anyone who thinks they cant compete is lying to themselves.

united would be in "almost" the same boat as ligonier valley if laurel valley gets their wish and they were to go to united instead. that would only be 18 less students at a combined laurel valley/united than a combined school at ligonier valley.

maybe the best solution would be to have half the students go to ligonier and half to united, making 2 schools with around 230-240 which should be AA in all sports.

If you would think for a minute Portage would be in a league with the Bishops!! They are trying to go to District 5 to avoid the Bishops. I know it is just an idea but cannot see it. Blacklick Valley would never go to the Heritage either. They are too small of a school to jump into that circuit.

Big Ike,

Somerset is a D5 school now.

~PA

the reason I'm saying a combined Lig/V La/V would be the WPIAL's new whipping boys has very little if any thing to due to race and facilities, it has to due with coaching (what you are willing to pay), if this is not true just look at the (WPIAL) playoffs in football and b-basketball and look into salaries every year, the only exception here is only minority school districts in the lower classes and the political structure of the WPIAL, if you question that just look at Indiana H.S. and the moves made by the WPIAL as far a section play and scheduling that have effected them especially in football. As far as the move it self Ligonier has a many people who don't understand why they ever left the WPIAL in the first place and feel the travel distances would be much shorter. I have sceen this mentality first hand when I coached teener baseball.