ALLENTOWN - District 11 officials held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss postseason plans in all sports for the 2022-23 seasons.

Officials outlined changes in several sports at the annual event, held at the new St. Luke’s Metro Field in Allentown.

District 11 Chairman and Whitehall Athletic Director Bob Hartman also provided some news on several PIAA changes that could be coming in the future.

“We have some PIAA updates for you, things that are in the works but aren’t here yet. If you’re not aware, PIAA operates on two-year cycles, so we’re at the beginning of a two-year cycle and we’re looking at some big changes for implementation in the next two-year cycle,” said Hartman. “One of those changes would be changing the way that we count enrollments. Currently, in the PIAA we count enrollments that the students that come to your school full day, count as a student. Then students that go to vo-tech schools or magnet schools or any of other things, (who) generally do not participate in athletics, those are counted with a multiplier, so they’re counted a little bit less, and it changes everybody’s number.

“There’s a huge movement, because there have been errors and mistakes (in those calculations), to get rid of that. So every student on your books, counts as a student, and if that goes through, that will change classifications. It will change where certain schools fit based on their vo-tech enrollment.”

That wasn’t the only wide-reaching potential change Hartman discussed.

“Another thing we talked about is the competitive balance formula the PIAA has in place, where if you’re successful and you have X number of transfers you’re gonna go up a classification,” said Hartman, who is also on the PIAA board of directors. “There is movement out there to get rid of the transfer portion of that formula. We are only at first readings for those right now, we’re moving to second readings likely in October. I’m not necessarily sold on that concept right now, but it will evolve over the next few months as the board continues to have discussions.”

As for what’s to come this school year, certain sports will see more changes than others.

FALL SPORTS

• The cross country championships will be Wednesday, Oct. 26 at DeSales University. There will be two teams and the next 10 individuals in each classification (1A, 2A, 3A) advancing to the PIAA Championships the following week (Nov. 5) in Hershey.

• There will be two teams in Class 1A and 3A advancing to states for field hockey, while just one will advance out of 2A. Games will be played on neutral sites in the semifinals and championships; early rounds will be at home sites. This year, the state championship will not be held at Whitehall. It will be at Cumberland Valley this season.

• There will be four qualifiers in 1A, 2A, 4A and 5A for the District 11 football playoffs. There will be eight qualifiers in 3A and 6A. There is also a subregional in 6A with District 2 (two teams) and District 4 (one team). “The only thing I would like to mention in 6A, if we get to that semifinal round and there are exactly two District 2/District 4 teams, and two District 11 teams, regardless of the seed or where they’re at in the bracket, we’re going to match them up so we can play our District 11 championship on the field, and District 2 and 4 can play their championship on the field,” said District 11 Football Chairman and Northwestern Athletic Director Jason Zimmerman. “So that’s a unique opportunity. And then the following week, we’ll determine who goes into the state tournament.”

District 11 finals in football will be held at neutral sites; everything prior to the final will be held at the site of the higher seeded team. If the subregional final is between a District 11 team and a District 2 or 4 team, the game will likely be held at the site of the higher seeded team. Games will be staggered (Friday and Saturday) depending on matchups, locations and what Zimmerman called a “major, major need for (more) officials.”

• The District 11 Golf Championships will take place this coming Monday at Olde Homestead. While there is no subregional for individuals, there is for team golf, which will be Wednesday, Oct. 12 at Olde Homestead. The Class 2A boys and girls will be paired up with Districts 1 and 12, while the 3A boys and girls will be with District 12.

There will be six state qualifiers for the boys and three for the girls in each class for the individual golf tournament.

• Like several other sports, a lack of officials is one of the main reasons for severely staggered dates for the boys and girls soccer tournaments. Seeding will be posted Sunday, Oct. 23, with the 1A boys and girls and 3A girls semifinals on Thursday, Oct. 27, and the finals not until Wednesday, Nov. 2.

The 2A boys and girls, 4A boys and girls will have semis on Tuesday, Nov. 1 and the championships on Thursday, Nov. 3. The 3A boys will have semis on Oct. 26 and finals Nov. 2.

The 1A girls will have two state qualifiers, while the 2A boys will advance two teams as well, though there will be a subregional with District 1. All other classifications will have one team qualify for states. The first round of the state tournament is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

• The District 11 girls singles tennis tournament, which includes a 16-person draw, will begin next Monday at Lehigh University, followed by the team tournament the following week and the doubles event the week after.

• In volleyball, there will be a minimum of four qualifiers in Class 1A, six in 2A and 3A and eight in 4A, which is based on the number of teams participating in that classification. Any team that has a .500 or better league or overall record will also be added. The tournament, which begins Oct. 25, is set to run on a Tuesday-Thursday, Tuesday-Thursday format, which could change. The intent is to play first round games and quarterfinals at the home site of the higher seed, with semifinals and finals on neutral courts while also utilizing doubleheader formats at sites throughout the district.

WINTER SPORTS

• The start date for basketball playoffs will be Feb. 21 with championships ending on March 4 - although dates are subject to change. The PIAA tournament starts March 10 and ends on March 25. There are subregionals in Class 1A boys with District 2 (three teams) and 3A boys with District 1 (three teams). The Class 1A girls have a subregional with District 2 (three teams)

District 11 Basketball Chairman Ray Kinder also provided an update on the possibility of a shot clock coming into play. “That was another thing that we spent about six months doing surveys and came to the conclusion that the majority of the schools and the majority of the PIAA districts were not in favor of it,” said Kinder. “So it was shelved at the basketball steering committee level. Does that mean it will never come up again? No, things can always come up again. But the reality is that it will probably be at least three, maybe four years until something like that would actually get off the ground if it came up again. Right now in basketball, that’s probably where we are.”

• Wrestling sees significant changes to its district team tournament format. Previously, the top 12 teams in 2A and 3A were seeded by power rating in a double elimination format which began Thursday and concluded Saturday, which also included a true second-place match if necessary. “We were trying to ensure that we got the two best teams in each classification,” said Hartman, who is the Wrestling Chair. “It really puts teams in a tough spot at the end of the event if they do need to wrestle for a true second-place match. It just becomes really a survival of the fittest; who has the least injuries and those types of things. With the blessing of the committee, we are changing back to our old format basically for wrestling. We are going to take the top eight teams by power rating, and then a committee is going to seed those one-through-eight. We are eliminating our Thursday night competition; it’s single elimination and the champion is the champion, the runner-up is the runner-up. We’re looking forward to going back to that format.” Two teams in Class 2A and 3A advance to states.

Hartman also commented on the continued growth of girls wrestling across Pennsylvania, and noted the PIAA still requires there to be 100 schools to sanction the sport in Pennsylvania. With Bethlehem Area School District and Hamburg recently approving teams, that number is up to 66. “It’s grown exponentially since the spring so obviously it’s something that we talk about as a wrestling steering committee,” said Hartman. “And it’s surely on the horizon. The PIAA passed an emerging sport policy to further help this process along ... but I see it surely on the horizon.”

• The diving championships will be held at Emmaus High School on Saturday, Feb. 25, followed by the swimming championships for 2A and 3A Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4 at Parkland.

• Competitive spirit will once again take place at Easton Area Middle School on Saturday, Jan. 7.

SPRING SPORTS

• The baseball championship tournament will begin May 22, and must be completed by June 3. The number of qualifiers changed this year due to the reclassification, with a reduction of qualifiers in 6A down to one. There is a subregional in Class 3A with District 1 (three teams).

• Lacrosse will have a subregional for Class 3A boys and girls with District 2.

• The pigtail games for the softball tournament will be May 22, with the Class 1A and 2A finals to be held May 30, the 3A and 4A finals will be May 31, and 5A and 6A to be held June 1. Class 3A has a sunregional with District 1, which will be held within District 11. Class 6A and 4A have two state qualifiers, which will begin June 5.

• While the district tries to retain the same schedule for the boys and girls tennis tournaments, it is often difficult to do so in the spring with AP testing taking place. “We’re going to meet with a bunch of the boys’ tennis coaches after the girls’ season is over and come up with a schedule,” said Tennis Chair Tom Moll. “We were going with singles first, then team, then doubles. We may combine stuff a little differently in the spring just so we can avoid AP testing. It’s created a mess in terms of scheduling; some kids can be there, some kids can’t, and obviously with academics, you want to put that as the main priority.”

• The track and field championships will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, May 16 and 17 at Whitehall’s Zephyr Sports Complex. There will be two state qualifiers in each event for both Class 2A and 3A boys and girls. The state meet will once again be at Shippensburg University.

• Boys volleyball will have a subregional in Class 2A with Districts 1 and 3.

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SATURDAY FUN DAY … Katelynn Barthold had a field day against Catasauqua on Saturday. Barthold finished with a career-high five goals in a 9-1 victory over the Roughies. The Bulldogs’ Mikayla Gordon added three goals in the rout as Northern Lehigh ran its winning streak to six games. In the story that appeared in Monday’s Times News, Barthold was only credited with four goals.

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PRE-HERSHEY … The PIAA Foundation Invitation is an early chance for harriers across the state to take the course in Hershey. Matthew Santana of Northwestern made the most of his chance with an eighth-place finish. Santana faced a loaded field of 288 runners in the 2A classification. Meanwhile, Marian’s Albin Petschauer had the next best finish for a local runner as he posted a 30th-place finish in a field of 235 runners in the 1A classification.

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DOUBLE TIME … On Thursday, Jim Thorpe tennis players Tara McLean and Hailey Trine were given the chance to play twice in a match. After playing singles matches, the pair teamed up to play in doubles. It turned out to be a productive day for the Olympian pair as they not only recorded singles victories against Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg, but they combined for a dominating 6-2, 6-0 win in doubles.

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THRILLERS … A pair of games between area schools came down to the wire over the last week. On Saturday, it was Alexis Marotto who stepped up for Jim Thorpe. Just 26 seconds into the second overtime period. Marotto got her foot on a perfect pass from Mackenzie Yuhas and planted it in the back of the net to lift Jim Thorpe to a 2-1 non-league win over host Palmerton. A few days earlier, it was Lehighton’s Charli McHugh who put the finishing touches on a 2-1 win over Tamaqua with a goal with 2:26 left in the regulation.

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DISTRICT QUALIFIERS … Several local programs have punched their tickets for the postseason over the course of the last week. Northwestern (13-0 in Class 2A) and Lehighton (9-4 in Class 2A) have done so in boys’ soccer, while Northern Lehigh (10-3 in Class 1A), Jim Thorpe (9-1 in Class 2A), Palmerton (9-2 in Class 2A) and Northwestern Lehigh (9-3-1 in Class 2A) have done it in girls’ soccer. In volleyball, Jim Thorpe (10-0 in Class 2A) has already clinched a D-11 berth.