ALIQUIPPA — Tuesday morning marked the hearing to consider the PIAA’s emergency application against the Aliquippa School District to force the Aliquippa football program into a higher classification for the 2024 football season.
For about an hour Tuesday morning, both PIAA attorney Kandice Hull and Aliquippa attorney Tina Miller pleaded their cases to Judge Patrica McCullough regarding the case at hand, which could possibly move the Quips up to the 5A classification.
Before the PIAA filed the emergency application, Beaver County Judge James Ross ruled that Aliquippa would remain in the 4A classification for the next classification cycle with health and safety being one of the main reasons.
Throughout Tuesday morning's proceedings, Judge McCullough asked several questions of Hull based on the PIAA's competition formula, which takes into account a team's postseason success over the past two seasons and the number of transfers that a program brings in to determine a team's classification in the PIAA.
One of those questions was regarding the Southern Columbia football team, which has not moved up classifications despite winning seven consecutive PIAA Class 2A football titles from 2017-23. Hull stated that the lack of transfer players coming into the program over the years kept the Tigers in 2A.
When the PIAA first moved Aliquippa up to 5A in January, it stated that the Quips had a total of 23 transfers in the program after the 2023 season.
Judge McCullough also asked about the health and safety of the Aliquippa student-athletes. Hull noted that the Quips football program has over 50 players rostered but chooses to only voluntarily play their best 15-18 players.
Miller said that the medical testimonies regarding the health and safety of the student-athletes given to the lower courts during previous hearings were never rebutted by the PIAA. That testimony, most notably from Dr. Frank Hibar, was about the potential injury risk with a move to Class 5A because of the number of players that play both ways offensively and defensively during games.
She also stated that moving Aliquippa to 5A would once again disrupt teams in both Class 4A and 5A who are already beginning to work out and train before heat acclimation and official practices start at the beginning of August.
In her closing statement, Miller said that Southern Columbia has had more success capturing seven straight state titles. Aliquippa has posted a 74-6 record across six seasons, winning the state championship three times in those six seasons with two of those titles coming in Class 4A.
Hull ended the hearing by stating that the PIAA cares about the health and safety of its athletes, which is one of the reasons why the competitive balance rules are in place.
The Beaver County Times will update this story once more information becomes available.
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