By next football season, in a manner of speaking, there will be a new high school football team on the Main Line.

That would be a merged varsity team from the remnants of two longtime programs from the Lower Merion School District.

The Lower Merion High Aces and Harriton Rams were scheduled to play on Sept. 25, but like several other Central League opponents, the game was null and void. That’s because Harriton shut down its varsity football program after its nonleague, 53-0 Week 1 loss to Pottstown.

That season die was cast not only by the one-sided loss in Harriton’s first game, but was characterized by school officials as being due to low player numbers and player safety. Harriton was competing in District One’s Class 5A, which would make its roster one of the smallest among class competitors.

Dig deeper, however, and see that Harriton hadn’t won a Central League game since 2019. That victory came at the expense of fellow school district foe Lower Merion, which, at the time, snapped Harriton’s 44-game league losing streak.

Little wonder, then, that the school district finally moved in recent months to get approval to merge its two varsity football programs. The PIAA officially approved that move at its meeting on Oct. 7, and LMSD superintendent Dr. Frank Ranelli announced it only last Tuesday.

Ranelli said he would meet with the respective school principals, Dr. Mike Johnson of Lower Merion and Stuart Warshawer of Harriton, and the athletic directors, John Seman of Lower Merion and Shawn Albert of Harriton. Those meetings, Ranelli said, would come “in the coming weeks … to begin working out the many considerations involved in this process.”

“I know that current and future players, coaches, families, students and community members have questions about the practicalities of how this merger will work,” Ranelli added in the statement to district residents.

Lower Merion and Harriton have plenty of historic models to study. While the Central League has remained intact for many years – its last major move was adding Garnet Valley and Harriton in 2008 – several small Delaware County high schools merged in the early 1980s to form Penn Wood and Academy Park high schools. Those mergers had a significant impact on athletic personnel, part of what mergers and downsizing orders are all about.

Some have speculated that the newly merged LMSD football team, which under current PIAA rules wouldn’t be eligible for District One or PIAA playoffs, may play an independent schedule for one season while it finds its feet. It’s unclear whether that would be under one of the school’s current banners or simply as a new school district team with a different name. Nothing has been officially announced as yet on any of the details.

“While thoughtfully implementing this change to our high school football programs will require a lot of work,” Ranelli said, “the goal is to create a sustainable program that prioritizes the safety of our student athletes while preserving their opportunities to participate.”

Rankings Impact

While the Central League decided to handle Harriton’s football surrender by removing the Rams from league schedules altogether, that decision inevitably skewed the math for the PIAA playoff power rankings. League teams that had Harriton on their schedules had to divide their power points by nine games rather than 10, with no bonus points added.

Thus losses and wins over higher class opponents took on a more significant impact.

The league isn’t alone, as Penn Wood’s continuing suspension of football, due to what was originally described in a William Penn School District release as “an alleged incident that implicates culture and climate in athletics,” has impacted the status of league opponents Chichester and Chester, which had to accept respective forfeit wins over the past two weekends. This will likely continue next weekend, with Academy Park facing Penn Wood, its last scheduled seasonal opponent.

Jenkintown High, which competed in football in the Bicentennial League in District One’s Class 1A, and Cheltenham, a member of the Suburban One League’s Continental Division and classified 5A in the district, also cut their seasons short.

Jenkintown followed Harriton’s lead after two games this season, canceling its varsity season because it considered its roster too small. Cheltenham had its varsity and junior varsity seasons canceled before the start of the campaign, stemming from hazing allegations last year.

All About Fall Playoffs

Aside from football, the District One playoffs ramp up this week, with field hockey games starting today (Monday) and girls’ and boys’ soccer and volleyball beginning Tuesday. Cross Country holds its district championship races Friday at Lehigh University, while girls’ tennis awaits the start of the PIAA Tournament matches. Golf has already completed its district and state competitions.

In boys soccer’s top-level 4A class, Lower Merion and Conestoga are unsurprisingly the top two seeds, and both get first-round byes on Tuesday. In their last two regular-season (and Central League) matches, the Pioneers struggled to score, settling for scoreless ties against Strath Haven and Radnor.

The Pioneers had won their first nine games before a 1-1 tie with Lower Merion on Sept. 29, and those last two ties left them behind in the Central League standings, as LM finished with a Central League mark of 9-0-2 (16-0-2 overall) and Conestoga finished 8-0-3 in the Central, 14-0-3 overall.

Thus, the Pioneers get the runners-up spot from the Central League and in the district seedings behind league foe Lower Merion, though the two schools have proven all season to be as closely matched as can be.

In the Class 3A competition, West Chester Rustin and Radnor enter as the top two seeds, with identical overall records of 12-3-3. Radnor’s 0-0 tie with Conestoga to finish the regular season boosted the Raptors, just two years removed from winning the 3A district title, to the second seed. Springfield-Montco is seeded third, and Strath Haven is seeded fourth.

In girls’ soccer, look to Downingtown, where Downingtown West (15-0-3) and Downingtown East (12-0-6) each boast unbeaten records. But Central Bucks East (16-1-1) won the power-rankings race over second-seeded D-West.

Both of those teams have byes on Tuesday, as do Pennridge and Council Rock South, at seeds 3 and 4.

In Field Hockey, top Class 3A seed Boyertown has a bye until Wednesday’s second round. So do the next seven seeds in that top classification.

Boyertown eased through the season at 16-1-1, its lone loss being to Wilson (9-3) of District 3. Conestoga (16-1-0) may have missed out on bonus points but presents no small challenge as the second seed. Its lone season loss was to the Inter-Ac’s Episcopal Academy, by 2-1.

Girls’ tennis crowns district champions

While team sports are only starting district playoffs, the district’s individual girls tennis championships have ended. The doubles competition ended this past week, with Aubrey McConnell and Sofia Yi teaming up for the Class 3A title for Council Rock North, and Olivia Dungan and Amelia Mitchell of Villa Joseph Marie winning at 2A.

Lower Merion won the team tennis district title on Oct. 20. But district tennis’ most interesting development came earlier in the month in the singles competition. That’s when Pennsbury sisters Mia and Gwyneth Fedus took first and third places, respectively.

To get there, the sisters had to face each other. Freshman Mia was victorious over junior Gwyneth by 6-3 and 6-4. Both girls will be competing in the upcoming PIAA state tourney.

Same thing, every season

While the excitement in local high school sports builds for PIAA-affiliated schools, the age-old call for PIAA to split into public and private competitions will likely be heard all over again.

That always hits home in the Inter-Ac League, which isn’t affiliated with the state athletics governing body. But at least from a football perspective, Malvern Prep head coach Dan Gueriera seems OK with it.

After his team’s fairly thrilling, come-from-behind 17-16 win over Haverford School Saturday, Gueriera complimented the Fords for being a much better team than the one he had scouted earlier in the season.

To Gueriera, competition and historic rivalries in Inter-Ac League play have played a big role. Even the PAISAA (Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association) tournaments, which involve Inter-Ac and other regional private schools in most sports, aren’t available in football. But that may only heighten the intensity of league games through October and the first week of November.

“It’s better than playing through December and playing like, Cumberland Valley or something,” Gueriera said. “These games are different, man. I tell (the players) all the time, you can go watch Sallies (Salesianum) beat the heck out of Haverford in Week 2, but I promise you, that will not be the case now. This was not the same team in Week 7.”