So the ‘quips used to be a large school and was always a major power. But the steel mills closed and hard times hit the town. Now the school is so small it should be in the A classification, the smallest in the state. But the state has a rule that if a team wins consecutive championships it must move up in classification. The rule was adopted as a way to keep Catholic and private schools from dominating the playoffs. But Aliquippa has been so consistently good that this year they were forced to play AAAA, despite objections it wasn’t safe for its players.
So how did they do? A school graduating 39 kids playing schools graduating 280 or more? Well....they won the WPIAL district championship by defeating heavy favorite Belle Vernon 28-13! Simply amazing!
Warfield joked Saturday that Belle Vernon has more cheerleaders than Aliquippa’s high school has seniors.
“It’s incredible and shameful at the same time,” Warfield said. “It’s incredible that a school that graduates 39 kids is playing against teams that are graduating 280 kids — seven or eight times as many. That’s incredible that we can compete.
“But it’s shameful to me for the people that are making those decisions to have us playing up so high. … There’s no team in the country that’s being forced to play up three classifications.”
So how did they do? A school graduating 39 kids playing schools graduating 280 or more? Well....they won the WPIAL district championship by defeating heavy favorite Belle Vernon 28-13! Simply amazing!
Warfield joked Saturday that Belle Vernon has more cheerleaders than Aliquippa’s high school has seniors.
“It’s incredible and shameful at the same time,” Warfield said. “It’s incredible that a school that graduates 39 kids is playing against teams that are graduating 280 kids — seven or eight times as many. That’s incredible that we can compete.
“But it’s shameful to me for the people that are making those decisions to have us playing up so high. … There’s no team in the country that’s being forced to play up three classifications.”
Aliquippa celebrates ‘incredible, shameful’ victory over Belle Vernon in WPIAL Class 4A final | Trib HSSN
Small-school Aliquippa might be short on students, but nobody has more WPIAL football titles than the Quips.
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