Starting next year, athletic teams all across Pennsylvania will begin to feel the effect on the new six-classification system the PIAA recently instituted. Salisbury is one of those schools that falls in the middle of the pack of that new system across its various sports teams.

Beginning with the Falcons’ football team, there will be both a sense of familiarity and a new look in terms of their classification next fall. While the Falcons bump up to Class AAA after operating at AA for much of the recent past, plenty of familiar foes are also making the leap. Common postseason teams such as Northern Lehigh, Notre Dame (Green Pond) and North Schuylkill are all set in AAA, as are a number of the Colonial League teams.

But a number of league opponents dropped down a classification to the AA ranks, and a number of others, including Northwestern (AAAA) and Southern Lehigh (AAAAA) jumped in the upward direction.

“Generally speaking, basically what remains the same is the teams we play in the playoffs,” Cerco said. “Palisades I think is AAA. There were a few that went down to AA.”

The realignment might end up benefiting Cerco and the football squad.

“In the grand scheme of things,” he said. “It may help us out a little bit in the fact that there were three teams that could have qualified previously at the level we were at, and they wouldn’t in this new format.

In terms of gaining critical power ranking points toward the district playoffs, the Falcons have a number of abilities to move up in the standings with opponents such as Southern Lehigh (AAAAA) and Bangor (AAAA) on the upcoming schedule again.

“Beating AAAAA teams, if we are able to do that in the future here, helps us out in gaining more points,” Cerco said. “I think our field is very similar. Two or three teams here or there will be up to AAAA or down to AA. I guess it gives us more of an opportunity to qualify in a sense. I think that was the intention, to increase the amount of teams that make the playoffs and also level the playing field for a lot of teams.”

While enrollment numbers are set for the upcoming two years, Cerco envisions a number of changes to level the playing field even more. Take a team like Southern Lehigh, for example, finished 7-3 last year but did not qualify for the district tournament. They’ll be moving up two classes this year, but no team in the Colonial League is on the same AAAAA classification.

“The one thing that I think will be a discussion in the near future, depending on how points work out, is to develop an open date or some crossover games with another league,” Cerco said. “That would kind of make sense for a team like Southern Lehigh. They may get to a situation where they’re really in trouble even if they have a really good record.”

Another change for next year’s football season has Week 1 of the regular season beginning a week earlier with just one scrimmage instead of two.

The Falcon boys basketball team is the only Salisbury team ranked in the AAAA classification; it’s the second-lowest boys basketball school in the state in terms of enrollment numbers in AAAA, narrowly missing the AAA cut line. The Falcons make the jump from AAA after being in AA only a short time ago. But with the Falcons moving up, Palisades, Bethlehem Catholic, Wilson and Saucon Valley (all recent postseason teams) could await in the AAAA postseason field.

On the other hand, however, Central Catholic, the team responsible for defeating the Falcons in districts last year, is moving up to AAAAA.

In girls hoops, the Lady Falcons jump from AA to AAA, as do many familiar faces in both District 11 and the Colonial League. North Schuylkill, Pine Grove, Palmerton (district playoff teams last year) are now in AAA, as is Palisades, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.

It looks as if both soccer teams will have the opportunity to benefit from the shift in alignment.

The Falcon boys stay in the Class AA ranks, but familiar foes such as Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Southern Lehigh and Central Catholic are now in AAA. The girls also remain in AA, with Saucon Valley (the lowest AAA school in Pennsylvania) and Southern Lehigh advancing to AAA. The Northwestern and Palisades girls remain in the AA field with Salisbury, two heated rivalries in the past couple of seasons.

On the diamond, the Falcon baseball and softball teams move up a spot to the Class AAA field. And so do many of their familiar opponents.

In baseball it’s Palmerton, Notre Dame (Green Pond), Catasauqua, Pine Grove, Northern Lehigh, Pen Argyl, North Schuylkill and Tamaqua. Many of those same teams move up in softball, including Palisades and Jim Thorpe.