Jackson Butler of Bishop McCort is taken down to the mat by Reagan Milheim of Warrior Runduring their match at 145 pounds during the PIAA Wrestling Championships in Hershey. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Since winter high school sports have come to an end, the exhausting topic of boundary and non-boundary schools has become relevant again. I get it, it’s tiresome to even think about. But it needs to be discussed again. The results of the PIAA Basketball Championships gave this topic life again after nine of the 12 basketball state championships went to private schools.

That’s quite absurd.

The public schools who won basketball titles were Aliquippa boys (2A), Blackhawk girls (4A) and Central York boys (6A). According to a recent article by Penn Hills Progress, PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi mentioned that “there are a lot of schools that are on the radar for whether they’re attracting students or not,” and that the issue “is not just a public versus private/charter school issue, it’s a school issue usually centered around a coach or administration.”

He’s partially right. It can’t be a players’ issue, never has and never will be. So therefore it is a school issue, but a private school one at that. The schools who are collecting all of the state championships, leaving miniscule opportunities for public schools.

Lombardi and PIAA administrators certainly think they have made enough changes, like how they’ve implemented the new transfer rule, but that’s not the problem. The PIAA has an old-school mentality and is refusing to change–point blank period. And until it realizes how much the private vs. public school postseason competition is hurting high school athletes the topic will be a recurring theme for some time.

The boundary vs. non-boundary playoff competition discussion is not an easy one. There are repercussions to just about any road one is willing to go down, but that should be at the forefront of the PIAA’s mind. There is the recruiting aspect of private schools, who own the right to recruit students which helps to bring in revenue, but there is also the complication of student-athletes “transferring” or “moving” schools, or who non-boundary schools can compete against in the postseason.

The extent of the “transfer” of schools is a big part of the debate. While the PIAA gives freedom for students to move within various school districts within the state, the private school route seems to be the issue at hand.

The PIAA has implemented transfer rules for those who do move school districts that they must sit out for one year. On page 17 of the PIAA Constitution and By-Laws, the PIAA states, “athletics should remain subservient to academics,” but are parents and schools truly abiding by this rule? It seems like the PIAA isn’t governing the transfer of all its schools’ athletes and it’s making for unfair competition, especially if student-athletes aren’t transferring for academic purposes. It’s different if, per say, a parent gets a new job in a particular school district.

No disrespect to private schools, they can recruit the students they want for their school and a lot of times that’s one of the ways the school makes money, but the way which these non-boundary schools can recruit certain kids just to win is happening at a preposterous rate.

I’m an ultimate competitor when it comes to sports–and fans all want to see the best of competition. But when the competition is consistently dominated by one set of schools each year, it’s tough for all 12 districts in the state to compete when teams are loaded and stacked with talent. And a majority of the stacked rosters have athletes committed to compete at the collegiate level, which not all public schools get. Public schools may have a good number of collegiate athletes on multiple teams, but private schools athletes are typically headed to the next level if they aren’t already being recruited or have interest from collegiate institutions.

Not to mention the resources the private schools get–donations and personalized sports gear, to say the least–over the public schools.

The basketball issue may not be as relevant in North Central Pennsylvania in Districts 4/6 as in Districts 1-3/7-12 where the powerhouses lie. But it does matter in sports like wrestling where this area dominates in qualifying for championships.

This past season’s wrestling was a success for both Central Mountain and Bald Eagle Area in which the Wildcats finished third in the state in Class AAA and the Eagles bowed out after the second day after losing two consecutive duals.

In the first round of Class AA, Bald Eagle Area drew Notre Dame-Green Pond, a strong, private, Catholic wrestling school with Division I athletes who finished third in the state. The fourth place team, which BEA lost to in the consolation round, was Reynolds, a public school.

Before BEA reached the Team Wrestling Championships, it had to face Bishop McCort, a wrestling powerhouse known, as one anonymous sports writer puts it, as “carrying themselves like a college program,” at the private, Catholic school in Johnstown. The Eagles were annihilated 58-15 in the District 6 Duals.

The Eagles were tabbed with a dual matchup with Quaker Valley in which BEA dominated, 55-9, but it easily could have punched its ticket to the state tournament’s first round if boundary and non-boundary schools were sanctioned differently.

Bald Eagle Area is a school of less than 1,000 students. The Eagles haven’t won a state wrestling title since 1999. In a sport that is constantly growing and where athletes are getting better, there is no guarantee when the Eagles will make their return back to the state tournament. With the school size of Bald Eagle Area, talent isn’t always flowing through small schools, so for a team like BEA to face a Bishop McCort–although McCort is also small with just under 400 students–private schools like the one in Johnstown never question whether they’re going back to the state tournament because they’re bringing in the next best talent. Public schools like BEA don’t always have that option. If it’s a down year, it’s a down year.

Class AAA was a little easier on the boundary vs. non-boundary issue as Central Mountain didn’t run into any trouble until it ran into familiar foe Bethlehem Catholic in the Championship Semifinals of the tournament. The Wildcats narrowed the gap from the loss to BECA two years ago, 53-3, to 34-19 this year but that doesn’t erase the loss for the second consecutive year.

From 2016-2024, with the exception of a few seasons, the team championships have been a war between Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic with Waynesburg Central, another public school, mixed in. Still, Nazareth, a public institution, hadn’t won consecutive titles in that span. On the other hand, BECA has been running the state tournament table for 13 years.

Bethlehem Catholic, once Class AA back in 2011, won four consecutive team titles from 2011-2014 before missing in 2015 but jumping back in the mix in 2016, in Class AAA, winning six of the next nine titles that includes this season.

Winning three consecutive titles doesn’t make a school a powerhouse, per say–many schools have one class that–but winning six titles in less than a decade should cause some red flags. But no one is questioning this because BECA is a private school that can recruit. But their success is keeping public, and some private, school athletes from achieving team success in the few years a team could be a dynasty.

Pennsylvania isn’t the only state dealing with the public vs. private debate, like Colorado and Wisconsin. But there are states like New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Louisiana who have separate entities for public vs. private school playoff competition so there’s no excuse for the PIAA to begin conversations on how to make changes.

There are multiple layers that must be unwrapped for the separation to come close to existing. The PIAA currently prohibits separate playoffs under its legislation that was put into law back in 1972. Bald Eagle Area Athletic Director Doug Dyke, among other Centre County high school athletic directors, have proposed legislation revote on the bill. But how far will that go?

This certainly isn’t the 1970s anymore and even if they can’t come up with any changes, the PIAA could at least start untying this messy knot by acknowledging the possibilities instead of running from them, something they have been doing for the past few years now.

Zach Powell is the sports editor for The Express. Reach him at zpowell@lockhaven.com and follow him on Twitter @RealZachPowell.