There were two developments on the high school basketball front yesterday, one affecting one of the most successful District 6 programs and one impacting the entire state.
The Bellwood Antis girls basketball program won its PIAA appeal yesterday and will remain in Class AA. Two other western Pennsylvania programs, the Chartiers Valley and North Catholic girls, also won their appeals and will not have to bump up a class under the PIAA’s competitive balance rule, but the Lincoln Park boys were denied.
The rulings were made by the PIAA executive staff, but Lincoln Park can still appeal to the full PIAA board of directors.
The competitive balance rule was implemented as the PIAA’s response to threats by more than 150 school districts to leave the organization if fairness issues between public and private schools in the playoffs were not addressed. The rules apply only to football and basketball.
In other state high school basketball news, the National Federation of State High School Associations Basketball Rules Committee yesterday announced it will not mandate the use of a shot clock, or allow states that belong to the association to decide for themselves. It did, however, say it will keep exploring the issue.
Other rulings yesterday were that officials do not need to issue a warning before assessing a technical foul against a coach; a game becomes a forfeit if a coach is ejected and no qualified school personnel are present to assume responsibility for the team; finally, the game timer should sound the horn signaling the coach has fifteen seconds to replace an injured or ejected player and a second horn when that fifteen seconds expires.
The federation’s rulebook is followed by the PIAA.
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