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The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is the governoring body of high school and junior high school Sports in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . Based out of Mechanicsburg , the organization is officially known as Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., and usually simply referred to as "PIAA". Beginning in Pittsburgh , on December 29, 1913, the PIAA was given the privilege of serving its member schools and registered officials by establishing policies and adopting contest rules that emphasize the educational values of Interscholastic Athletics , promote safe and sportsmanlike competition, and provide uniform standards for all interscholastic levels of competition. As a result of the cooperative efforts of its membership, PIAA has assisted middle school, junior high school, intermediate school, and senior high school students in participating in interscholastic athletic programs on a fair and equitable basis, thus producing important education benefits. PHILOSOPHY It is unconscionable that a school or any of its employees would subvert the high purposes of interscholastic athletics by condoning any violation of the rules. To involve boys or girls in any practice or procedure which “gets around the rules” is unworthy of a person associated with athletics. DISTRICTS The PIAA divides its member schools' counties into 12 geographical districts for the purpose of state championship competition. The following list is the district breakdown by county.
While this is a general outline of the districts, there are some notable exceptions:
Also, District 7 is also known as the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) and is usually referred to by that name. East vs. West Traditionally for state championship competition for team sports, Pennsylvania is divided into Eastern and Western Regions. Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, and 12 make up the Eastern Region; while Districts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 make up the Western Region. The winners of each region compete against each other for the state championship. However, since the creation of District 12 with the admission of the Philadelphia Public Schools into the PIAA, the East vs. West format has been abandoned for some sports at certain classifications; particularly at the Class "AAAA" level where there are more large schools in the East. SPORTS The PIAA sponsors 11 boys' sports and 10 girls' sports. The following is a list of PIAA sponsored sports.
There are Pennsylvania schools that offer sports not sponsored by the PIAA such as Ice Hockey , Bowling , Lacrosse , and other Olympic Sports . These sports are governed by other sport specific bodies, such as ice hockey's PIHL (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League), that use similar PIAA rules for classification and eligibility, but are not officially regonized as "state champions" by the PIAA. SCHOOL CLASSIFICATIONS Every two years the PIAA divides the member schools into either two, three, or four different classifications for each sport depending on the number of male or female students enrolled in each school. The number of statewide member schools participating in a particular sport will determine how many different classifications there will be. For example, boys' volleyball, the sport with the smallest number of participating schools, only has a "AA" or "AAA" clssification. By comparison, boys' basketball, which has the largest number of participating schools, has "A", "AA", "AAA", and "AAAA" classifications. The number of "A"s signify how large or small the school is. "A" is the smallest classification, while "AAAA" is the largest. The PIAA tries to place an equal number of schools in each classification. Because the PIAA determines classifications separately for each sex in each sport, it is possible that a coeducational school may find its boys' and girls' teams in different classes in the same sport. Smaller schools can choose to compete at a higher classification, but larger schools can not choose to compete at a lower classification level. For purposes of all-star games and awards, the "A" and "AA" classes are referred to as "small schools", while "AAA" and "AAAA" are referred to as "big schools" HERSHEY, PA While some sports' championship games have been held at various venues and cities across the state, no city is more associated with the PIAA than Hershey . Hershey's proximity to Harrisburg , as well as easy highway access via the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstates 81 and 83 for teams from across the state makes it an ideal location for the games. Hersheypark Stadium hosts the football and soccer championships; The Giant Center hosts the basketball and wrestling; and the Hershey Raquet Club hosts the tennis championships. The basketball championships are probably associated with Hershey the most by high school sports fans across the state as the games have been held in Hershey since 1976 , first at the HersheyPark Arena, then moving to the Giant Center in 2003. It is tradition for fans to throw Hershey's Kiss es onto the court after their school wins their semi-final game to advance to the state championship level. Even the non-PIAA sport of ice hockey hosted the 2005 Pennsylvania Cup championship at the historic Hersheypark Arena . The PIAA football championships have only being played since 1988 with the first games being held at Penn State's Beaver Stadium . In the early '90's the game was moved to Altoona's Mansion Park in part because playing four games in two days would not affect the Artificial Turf playing surface on the field. The football championships were moved to Hershey in the late '90's to add to the tradition of PIAA championship competition games at Hershey. Altoona however does host the baseball championships at Blair County Ballpark , home of the minor league baseball club the Altoona Curve . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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