After a recent groundswell of support, a bill that would allow the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to conduct separate playoffs for private and public schools took a big step forward Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The state House overwhelmingly approved House Bill 41, which allows the state\u2019s governing body for high school sports to separate the postseason for boundary and non-boundary schools. The vote was 178-23.<\/p>\n
The bill, originally adopted in May 2025 and sponsored by Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre County, advances to the Senate for consideration and a possible vote, possibly early this summer, and won\u2019t mandate the PIAA to hold separate playoffs, but would allow it the authority to do so without the threat of lawsuits after amendment was added to the bill Tuesday at State Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it moves to the Senate now, and I don\u2019t have a lot to say in reaction at this time,\u201d PIAA executive director Mark Byers said. \u201cI was very appreciative of the support and the amendment added by State Rep. Matzie. We will discuss this at the May 13 meeting, but there is not a whole lot to react to at this point. As an organization, we have always been consistent and followed the law that is in place. We don\u2019t know where this is going to end up at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often, when presented with the idea of allowing boundary schools (public schools) and non-boundary schools, which include Catholic, charter, and private schools, the PIAA points to state legislation as to the reason it hasn\u2019t adopted a new format.<\/p>\n
A 1972 bill, Act 219, amended Pennsylvania\u2019s school code to allow private and Catholic schools to join the PIAA. It allowed them to compete in state championship events and mandated that private schools be allowed to be members. At that time, private and Catholic schools competed in the Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association, which held separate state playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still a long way to go,\u201d said Old Forge Superintendent Chris Gatto, whose letter to the PIAA executive director Mark Byers went viral following the PIAA Class 2A boys basketball final, where the Blue Devils lost to Sewickley Academy, a private school from District 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a big hurdle. This has been an issue for a long time, but the last couple of weeks following our state championship game, there has been a lot of momentum building. It was really good to see. I was watching the vote on my computer.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the heart of the bill is fairness in the pursuit of PIAA championships. After the recent basketball state championships, while always a controversial topic, it became a glaring issue when Old Forge lost to Sewickley Academy, a private school with a roster filled with all-star talent from around the world.<\/p>\n
Sewickley Academy defeated Old Forge, a school that draws its student body from a defined 3.5-mile area with a male enrollment of 120, by a score of 52-36. Mamadou Kane, who hails from Senegal, and Adam Ikamba, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, combined for 29 points to lead a Panthers team to a 30-1 overall finish.<\/p>\n
That outcome inspired Gatto to contact Byers and PIAA president and District 2 chairman Frank Majikes. In an initial email, Gatto expressed his concerns about what he views as an unfair advantage that non-boundary schools have by bringing in players from across the state, outside of the state, and even outside the country.<\/p>\n
Byers responded and cited the 1972 Act 219 as the main barrier. He also pointed to the PIAA\u2019s competition formula as a measure to address the inequities between the boundary and non-boundary schools.<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t satisfy Gatto. Old Forge, a small public school program, was moved up to Class 3A after consecutive seasons of reaching the state semifinals and having a transfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no ill-will toward the PIAA,\u201d Gatto said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it is necessarily a PIAA issue or a non-boundary school issue. It\u2019s nothing against Sewickley Academy. They were the better team. The PIAA has a job to do and has constraints, just like I have a job to do with constraints, following the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut to say that the PIAA competitive formula is a remedy does not work. That system bit us in the last cycle. Old Forge moved up to play 3A after two good seasons, when our team made it to the eastern finals. That is not the answer to balance the inequities between boundary and non-boundary schools. I understand that with bylaws and the school codes, it\u2019s a challenge, but the competition formula is not a solution to the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the days leading up to the state basketball championship weekend at the Giant Center in Hershey, where nine boys\u2019 teams and six girls\u2019 teams from non-boundary schools were playing for championships, House Bill 41 was thrust into the public\u2019s eyes again. Casey Scanlan, a resident of the Lehigh Valley, shared the Support Group PA H.B. 41 \u2013 Separation of Public & Private Schools in PIAA playoffs on Facebook. It has more than 3,400 followers. He has also been headstrong in providing statistics that back the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy group and I, which is the H.B. 41 coalition support group made up of more than 300 high schools, are energized not just by the passage in the House but also by how bipartisan the vote was,\u201d Scanlan said. \u201cWe feel that this result may encourage the Senate to act quickly and act swiftly, and hopefully not stall this bill out. We will be back to work. There is no time to celebrate. We are rallying everyone to start contacting their senators. Our way to see this through is to keep our school districts united and empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, Gatto, Riverside superintendent Paul Brennan, whose boys\u2019 team lost to West Catholic in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals for the second straight season, and Scanlan met with State Rep. Jim Haddock and Senator Marty Flynn to discuss the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am biased to Old Forge, obviously, but it is not just an Old Forge issue,\u201d Gatto said. \u201cI think Casey has more than 300 schools that signed the petition. It affects all public schools. The amount of time and energy that goes into each season, and to have it end that way is not right. We enjoyed the run, but to then go into a final game where the odds are stacked against you is disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last football season, Lackawanna Trail (Class 1A), Lakeland (Class 2A), and North Pocono (Class 4A) had their state playoff runs ended by non-boundary schools.<\/p>\n
In basketball, Old Forge (Class 2A), Riverside (Class 3A), Valley View (Class 4A) boys\u2019 teams, and Valley View (Class 4A) and Crestwood (Class 5A) girls\u2019 teams lost to non-boundary schools in the state playoffs.<\/p>\n
Eighteen of the 23 representatives who voted against House Bill 41 are from districts in Philadelphia County, while other no votes came from representatives from Beaver, Delaware, Lehigh, Washington and Westmoreland counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a recent groundswell of support, a bill that would allow the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to conduct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-180360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}