Last season, we picked up the WPIAL torch during the fall and rattled off some posts about local high school football. We’re not insiders or experts, but we do love high school football, particularly in Western Pennsylvania. We’re going to try to make a post or two every week to keep readers updated on WPIAL games. Unlike the NFL, we obviously won’t be able to follow things as closely since the games aren’t televised and we pretty much have to rely on the limited scores and stats that we get from reading the paper. We organized our previews by our predicted order of finish.
Due to time constraints, i.e. the WPIAL season starting tonight, we had to speed up these previews a little bit. Therefore, rather than previewing each team, we’re just going to give you our predicted order of finish. Clairton is the defending PIAA Class A champs, after barely edging out Rochester in the title game. These two are clearly the class of Single-A, but there are some other teams out there that could make some noise. North Catholic with Senior QB Martin Long, who has started every game since his freshman year, runs a spread offense that could give teams troubles. Newcomers Sto-Rox and Bishop Canevin could be sleepers, and don’t forget about Springdale, who will be good once again.
The PIAA redrew the district classifications last year, so there was some movement of teams throughout WPIAL.
Sto-Rox
Bishop Canevin
Cornell
Northgate
OLSH
Laurel
Monaca
Big Seven Conference
Rochester
Sto-Rox
South Side Beaver
Cornell
Western Beaver
Shenango
Neshannock
Union
Black Hills Conference
Clairton
Fort Cherry
Brentwood
Chartiers-Houston
Serra Catholic
Carlynton
Avella
Bentworth
Eastern Conference
North Catholic
Springdale
Bishop Canevin
Avonworth
Northgate
Riverview
Leechburg
Wilkinsburg
OLSH
Tri-County South
Beth-Center
Monessen
Jefferson-Morgan
Carmichaels
California
Geibel
Mapletown
Frazier
West Greene
Preseason Top 8
1. Clairton
2. Rochester
3. North Catholic
4. Sto-Rox
5. Springdale
6. Bishop Canevin
7. Fort Cherry
8. Brentwood
Predicted A Champion
Homer Pick: North Catholic
Realistic Pick: Clairton
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