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Normally, re-posts are a really cheap way of looking like you’re doing something. But I’m going to re-post this file periodically because, well, I’m kind of proud of it. That, and I think you’ll find it interesting.

When you “retire” and you’re a certified high school sports geek like I am, you think things like: Who has the most all-time state champions in Pennsylvania? (Yep, that’s the kind of stuff that streaks through my mind.)

Worse, I actually took the time to figure it out and compile a database.

I finally got the thing completed and posted it in early July when everyone was at the beach. So, now that football is beginning to take hold and more folks are coming to the site, I’m re-posting it for those who might have missed it while they were tanning and shooing away gulls.

According to my research, North Allegheny has produced more combined state champions – team and individual – than any school in Pennsylvania with 130 PIAA championships. The Tigers have won 87 individual championships and a rather astounding 43 team championships.

That team number is just amazing. Consider that NA, which formed in 1959, has won team championships in 10 different sports: baseball, cross-country, football, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, volleyball and track. The only sports in which NA has not won a team title are basketball, field hockey, golf and lacrosse. Just give them another 50 years and the Tigers will be fine.

The original story, posted on July 10, is here. The 38-page database detailing every state championship won by every school (except for gymnastics) is here.

Find your school and see if you agree with the numbers. That way, you’ll be as big of a geek as I am.

Rod

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The PIAA released the Team Wrestling Brackets for 2010-2011. And someone loves their small districts.

In both the Class AAA and Class AA brackets, there are some interesting pairings involving District 9. See the brackets here.

In the 20-team Class AAA bracket, District 9 wrestles District 2 in the second round at Giant Center on Feb. 10. Why is that interesting?

District 9-AAA teams have compiled a 3-17 record over the 12-year span of the tournament. District 2-AAA teams have never won a PIAA Team Wrestling match; the D-2s are 0-14. That’s a combined 3-31 between the two districts.

So, someone with a, um, suspect track record with be guaranteed a spot in Friday’s quarterfinals.

In Class AA, where District 9 has had much more success (primarily in the consolation bracket), the 9-AA champion will catch either the District 1 or District 12 champion in the second round. District 1 and District 12 teams have never won a PIAA Team Championships match.

Contrast that to District 10’s draws. District 10 teams have won the last four of the last five PIAA Class AA titles (three by Reynolds and one by Fort LeBoeuf), but the 10-AA champion catches the 7-AA runner-up (usually a decent team like Shady Side Academy or Burrell) while the 10-AA runner-up hits the 3-AA champion, often a team capable of challenging for a top three spot. Note that Fort LeBoeuf was the 10-AA runner-up this past season.

Also in Class AA, the District 2 and District 5 champions square off in the second round. District 5 has had reasonable representation from Bedford and North Star, but has never advanced to a championship match. District 2’s AA history, at 7-18 with all but one victory coming in either the first round or the consolations, is nearly as dismal as its AAA history. West Scranton’s 36-31 win over North Star in 2005 is the only time a 2-AA team advanced to the state quarterfinals.

The pairings are not the result of smoky back-room shenanigan by the PIAA staff (no one on the staff smokes and I think there’s only one room that could be considered “back”), but basically the result of PIAA policy.

Note that where districts have multipile qualifiers in AAA, their lower places wrestle other lower places (with the exception of 7-AA third getting a first-round pass against the woeful City League rep) in Monday’s first round. The second-round matches then are basically paired by size of district with the larger districts facing the first-round survivors, which has been PIAA’s policy since they expanded the tournament beyond champions-only.

That leaves the remaining district champions to be paired against other champions or the runners-up from Districts 3 and 7. And PIAA policy again forces champions and runners-up from the same district to be on opposite sides of the bracket. Thus, you end up with, virtually by necessity, pairings that pit weak district vs. weak district.

Same in AA. That’s why the 10-AA runner-up is facing a larger district champion from D-3 rather than a smaller district like 1, 2, 5 or 9 despite District 10’s historical strength.

On the other hand, it appears the PIAA violated policy by pairing the 6-AA runner-up, which was nearly left out of the tournament when the Board botched the first vote on Team Wrestling in May, with the District 8 champion rather than the District 3 runner-up or the District 5 champion. Policy provides that, where possible, first-round matches should match teams from contiguous districts. But PIAA ignores this rule in basketball, too.

Trust me, 6-2 vs. 8-1 in the AA first round is the right matchup for the tournament (and especially for the 6-AA runner-up, which gets a much easier first-match draw than the 6-AA champion, which wrestles the 4-AA runner-up in its first match).

No doubt many people will find the brackets unfair, especially when it comes to their partisan concerns. But by and large, it’s not bad for an unseeded draw.

Well, until the actual results in February become apparent. Then the bitching will really begin.

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Here are the final approved qualifiers for wrestling for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years; they were adopted at the PIAA Board of Directors’ meeting in May.

The “qualifiers” files show the math the PIAA uses to determine the number of qualifiers from each district to the PIAA championship in that sport; the process is known as proportional representation. The brackets show the pairings for PIAA team and individual championships in each sport where applicable.

Here are the reports for team and individual wrestling:

PIAA CLASS AA REGIONAL WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AA STATE WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AAA REGIONAL WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AAA STATE WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AA TEAM WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AAA TEAM WRESTLING QUALIFIERS
PIAA CLASS AAA AND CLASS AA TEAM WRESTLING BRACKETS

Reminder: Brackets for individual PIAA wrestling are released the Sunday prior to the PIAA Wrestling Championships

PIAA POST-SEASON CALENDAR
PIAA Team Championships
First round: Monday, Feb. 7, sites TBA
Second round through PIAA Championships: Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 10-12 at Giant Center, Hershey

PIAA Individual Championships
Section sites (not all districts): Saturday, Feb. 19, various sites
District championships: Friday-Saturday, Feb. 25-26, various sites
PIAA Regional Tournaments: Friday-Saturday, March 4-5
(Not all regional sites have been determined; PIAA will release upon completion of all site agreements)
PIAA Championships: Thursday-Saturday, March 10-12