MIKE GROSS | Sports WriterImagine Cocalico football coach Bryan Strohl’s surprise to learn that his team has 43 “transfers’’ in 2023.
“It was a shock,’’ Strohl said last week when he heard about a preliminary report on the Eagles from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association relating to its competition formula.
“I went to our AD (Roger Czerwinski),” Strohl said. “I said, ‘That can’t be right, can it?’ ”
It couldn’t be and isn’t. Still, given the controversy surrounding the competition formula and the potential penalty, which is having to move up in class for the next two years, even routine paperwork can be a shock.
“We took a little bit of offense to it,’’ said Strohl.
The move up in class for the Eagles would have been to 6A, the largest classification. Cocalico is the smallest 5A school by enrollment in District Three.
“We (will graduate) 20 really good seniors,’’ Strohl said. “We’ve had success with our own kids, but of course we’re going to go in cycles.”
The formula was created in 2019. Schools receive “success points” based on their performance in the state playoffs over a two-year enrollment cycle — reaching the quarterfinals is worth two points, the semifinals three and the final four.
Every school with six or more points over two years — Cocalico had six, since it reached the state semifinals in 2022 and 2023 — and three or more transfers on its eligibility list in either of those years must move up in class for the next two years.
For every school that meets or exceeds the success-point threshold, the PIAA goes through eligibility sheets for that sport over the previous three years, in this case 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Every name on the 2022 and 2023 list that was not on the previous year’s list is “flagged,” even if the reason is that the student in question simply came out for the sport for the first time or if the school he or she attended previous to Cocalico High School was Cocalico Middle School.
That list — and, again, Cocalico’s list for football had 43 names on it — is sent to the school, which must provide evidence that the student in question was not a transfer, even if the evidence is as obvious as “he moved from eighth grade to ninth.”
“What we say is, ‘Please provide us with source documentation,’ ” PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi said Monday. “If you have it, if they’re your student and have been enrolled or whatever the case might be, the schools submit source documentation.
“(For example) Bob Lombardi was in ninth grade in our school. He didn’t come out for football until he went in the 10th grade. He’s been enrolled here his whole life. Here’s his attendance record.”
Czerwinski and school district lawyers, with some help from Strohl, went through the 43 names and came up with one actual transfer. No problem. Cocalico will play Class 5A football in 2024 and 2025.
The competition formula applied only to football and basketball until last year, when the PIAA voted to apply it to all team sports.
The formula calls for 11 schools/programs to move up in class next school year based in this fall’s results. Of the 11, six appealed the decision and the PIAA Board of Directors met Jan. 24 to consider those appeals.
Of the six, only Bishop Guilfoyle football won its appeal. Guilfoyle, which is in the Altoona area, is Class 1A by enrollment but had played in 2A the past two seasons after winning the 1A state title in 2021. It will return to 1A in the fall.
The schools/programs that lost appeals include Wyomissing football. The Spartans of the Lancaster-Lebanon League are Class 3A by enrollment but will jump to 4A in football for the next cycle.
The others: Villa Maria Academy field hockey (will be 3A), Springfield Township boys soccer (4A), Steel-High football (2A) and Aliquippa football (5A).
