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Morelli supports search for new county manager, bringing number on board to six

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<p>The PIAA Board of Directors voted 26-4 Wednesday to expanded football from four to six classifications starting with the 2016-17 school year.</p><p>The board also expanded boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball from four to six classifications. Boys and girls soccer will increase to four classifications. Field hockey and girls volleyball will increase to three classifications. Boys and girls lacrosse will be two-classification sports. These changes won&#8217;t take place until the 2016-17 school year.</p><p>Football, though, was the big-ticket item on the agenda after a similar push for six classifications in 2009 died on the final vote.</p><p>How the new setup will affect District 2 football teams and the postseason remains to be seen for two reasons. First, new enrollment figures for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years aren&#8217;t due to the PIAA until later this month. Secondly, those numbers could dip dramatically for some schools under the PIAA&#8217;s new 10-percent rule.</p><p>The 10-percent rule means schools need to count only 10 percent of their non-traditional students such as those who are home schooled or enrolled in cyber, charter or technical schools with no sports.</p><p>The Wyoming Valley Conference schools which would be affected the most are the ones which form West Side Career and Technical Center &#8212; Dallas, Lake-Lehman, Northwest, Wyoming Area and Wyoming Valley West.</p><p>The PIAA started with eight football proposals and whittled it down to three entering Wednesday&#8217;s meeting. The others were to keep the current four-classification format or go to six classifications with a Super 700 division. The Super 700 class would include all schools with male enrollments over 700. The remaining schools would then be divided evenly to form the other five classes.</p><p>Using current male enrollment figures plugged into the new cutoffs for football, here&#8217;s how WVC and Lackawanna Conference teams would break down for football:</p><p><strong>Class 6A (enrollment 608 or higher)</strong>: Hazleton Area (1,332), Scranton (699), Delaware Valley (655), Wyoming Valley West (654).</p><p><strong>Class 5A (410-607)</strong>: Williamsport (605), Wallenpaupack (476), Abington Heights (435), Pittston Area (411).</p><p><strong>Class 4A (301-409)</strong>: West Scranton (399), North Pocono (396), Coughlin (385), Crestwood (377), Dallas (364), Honesdale (363), Tunkhannock (350), Berwick (343), Wyoming Area (321), Valley View (309), Scranton Prep (305).</p><p><strong>Class 3A (210-300)</strong>: Western Wayne (299), Lake-Lehman (272), GAR (257), Nanticoke (239), Hanover Area (227), Lakeland (212), Montrose (211).</p><p><strong>Class 2A (148-209)</strong>: Holy Redeemer (209), Mid Valley (205), Meyers (201), Riverside (197), Carbondale (186), Dunmore (174).</p><p><strong>Class A (0-147)</strong>: Northwest (147), Holy Cross (155), Lackawanna Trail (124), Old Forge (105), Susquehanna (86).</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Others sports also see increase in classifications</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

PIAA football expanding to six classes soon