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Brothers George J. Esseff and Monsignor John Essef honored for community service

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Luzerne County considers purchase of new records building in Hanover Township

The PIAA released its new classification numbers for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years on Monday, and the landscape of Wyoming Valley Conference football could change dramatically over those two seasons.Schools have until Dec. 15 to decide to voluntarily play at a higher classification in any sport. A full list of all sports is available at piaa.org.Wyoming Seminary and Crestwood won&#8217;t have to worry about squaring off with each other for state field hockey titles anymore, unless Sem bumps up.Crestwood will be a Class 2A field hockey program, battling with fellow traditional WVC field hockey powers Wyoming Valley West and Coughlin. Sem drops down to Class A, along with Holy Redeemer and Wyoming Area&#8217;s rising program.Area boys basketball fans can still get an emotional rise from potential matchups between Wilkes-Barre city rivals GAR and Meyers. They&#8217;ll both compete in Class 4A, while Crestwood&#8217;s prominent program will join Wyoming Valley West and Pittston Area in Class 5A.Hazleton Area is the WVC&#8217;s only Class 6A school in both boys and girls basketball.While Holy Redeemer&#8217;s two-time state semifinalist girls basketball team will move to Class 3A along with Meyers, Nanticoke Area and Berwick will be among the area&#8217;s Class 4A teams while Pittston Area, Crestwood and Wyoming Valley West will all be Class 5A girls basketball schools.Among the area&#8217;s more successful baseball teams on the move are Wyoming Valley West (to Class 5A), Hazleton Area (6A), Wyoming Area and Berwick (both Class 4A) and Hanover Area (Class 3A).Hazleton Area&#8217;s softball team will shift to Class 6A, while Nanticoke and Berwick stay as Class 3A softball schools. Wyoming Area will move to 4A and Holy Redeemer to 3A.Berwick could be the WVC football team with the biggest change in its schedule. Berwick remained at Class 3A while its 10 regular-season opponents this year all moved up at least one class, including non-conference foes Pottsville and Selinsgrove. The Dawgs are now in a Class 3A group which includes former WVC 2A teams GAR, Hanover Area, Holy Redeemer, Lake-Lehman, Meyers and Nanticoke.Now, there will be a three-classification difference between Berwick and Hazleton Area and Williamsport, both of which will be in Class 6A. The rivalry with Wyoming Valley West, which will be 5A, could be in jeopardy since bigger schools are reluctant in football to play smaller schools due to the PIAA points system that determines postseason berths.However, Berwick has played at a higher classification in football in the past.Two District 2 classifications &#8212; Class 5A and Class A &#8212; will have only three schools and will very likely be grouped with other districts in subregional playoffs in the postseason.Six WVC football programs &#8212; Dallas, Hanover Area, Meyers, Nanticoke, Northwest and Williamsport &#8212; saw their enrollment figures increase from the past two school years despite the new PIAA 10-percent rule where only 10 percent of non-traditional students are counted toward enrollment calculations. However, none of those increases affected where the programs would have been slotted for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.Northwest, though, would have been a Class A school if not for a co-operative agreement in football with neighboring Benton High School. Northwest has had the agreement since 2014.Here are the new football classifications for the 2016 and 2017 seasons with PIAA parameters and male enrollment numbers in parentheses:CLASS 6A (564 or higher): Hazleton Area (897); Scranton (722); Delaware Valley (608); Williamsport (667).CLASS 5A (398-563): Wyoming Valley West (446); Abington Heights (421); Wallenpaupack (413).CLASS 4A (283-397): West Scranton (381); North Pocono (371); Pittston Area (365); Crestwood (364); Coughlin (361); Dallas (347); Tunkhannock (314); Honesdale (303); Valley View (301); Wyoming Area (288).CLASS 3A (201-282): Scranton Prep (278); Berwick (273); Nanticoke (268); Montrose (255); Carbondale (246); GAR (238); Meyers (238); Lake-Lehman (235); Hanover Area (230); Western Wayne (226); Holy Redeemer (203).CLASS 2A (141-200): Dunmore (199); Mid Valley (195); Lakeland (190); Riverside (176); Susquehanna (173); Northwest (150).CLASS A (up to 140): Holy Cross (126); Lackawanna Trail (114); Old Forge (114).<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By John Erzarjerzar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</shirttailMeta></div>

A shift in the sports scenery as PIAA releases reclassification for football, other sports