By Ryan Ding, Staff Reporter
On Oct. 22, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Resolution 318 152-50, which calls for a study of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). The PIAA is a nonprofit corporation that develops and enforces rules in interscholastic athletic competitions for more than 1,400 schools across Pennsylvania. Democratic vice chair of the Pa. Athletic Oversight Committee Rep. Robert Matzie proposed the resolution in early January.
“I have heard deep concerns over the policies, procedures, and decision making of the PIAA. Concerns from parents, teachers, athletic directors, principals, superintendents, and House and Senate members alike,” Matzie wrote in a Jan. 24 memorandum. “The authority of the PA Athletic Oversight Committee is limited. Attempts to have these concerns addressed by PIAA leadership too often go unresolved if they are considered at all. In this light, I believe it is time to take a deliberate and considered approach in conducting a comprehensive study of the PIAA.”
The resolution authorizes the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC), a Pa. General Assembly joint committee, to examine, review and suggest changes for the PIAA in a study due in six months. It is investigating aspects of the organization including financial performance, broadcast agreements, name, image and likeness policy, competition classification formula, location of state championships, and the potential expansion and enhancement of the authority of the Pennsylvania Athletic Oversight Committee. Field hockey head coach Regan Marscher approves of parts of the new resolution, especially regarding the locations of state championships and playoff games.
“We have competed in the state tournament in very nice stadiums, but the fields are built for football, and that is not appropriate for field hockey play. Even at the state championship, the turf was made for football, and the ball for field hockey moved incredibly slow,” Marscher said. “We’ve also played at Exeter Township High School in Reading the last four years for the state quarterfinals, and that field is not great for field hockey.”
Girls basketball head coach AJ Thompson feels that the PIAA should also make games easier to watch for remote fans. Currently, the PIAA broadcasts select games or media for free through the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN), but the majority of playoff games require a paid PCN subscription to view.
“I think being able to broadcast or stream our playoff games through our own YouTube channel would be something that is a common sense kind of thing, where people who can’t make it to the game but want to watch their granddaughter or grandson play don’t have to pay to have a subscription to something in order to be able to watch it,” Thompson said. “I get the PIAA has to make money somehow, but they make money in plenty of other ways. Limiting who can watch the game doesn’t make sense to me.”
Another element that the committee is investigating is the competition classification formula, the PIAA’s method for determining what schools can compete with each other. Currently, public schools, called boundary schools, must recruit players living inside school district lines, but private and charter schools, called non-boundary schools, can recruit players outside of district lines. Under the current competition classification formula, some boundary and non-boundary schools can play against each other.
“There’s things that the PIAA does really well, and there’s things that a lot of coaches would like to see them work on a little,” Thompson said. “I don’t think the boundary, non-boundary schools thing is ever really going to get fixed. But I think there’s small things that the PIAA could do, like letting us stream playoff games so that everybody can watch as a step in the right direction.”
Ryan Ding can be reached at [email protected].
