Some of you still poke in on occasion, especially when the PIAA Board of Directors meet because I usually have a live blog.

Well, I’m kind of having a blog today.  The difference: I’m running it through the PIAA District 3 site (my employer) rather than this blog.

It will be a bit more dry since I’ve excised the editorial comments, but the raw info will be there.

Click here to access the D3 blog.

Thanks.

In case you haven’t been keeping track, new executive director Dr. Robert Lombardi and the staff have done a great job of streamlining the Board meeting agenda.  In short, Doc has made it a priority to cut out the fat in Board meetings … and the meetings have lost about 50 percent of their previous weight.

Gone are the lumpy, 200-page agenda packets.  The agendas and items are out nearly a week ahead of time so BOD members aren’t hit with new matters when they walk in the door.  And not the least, less talk, more action has been a focus under Doc Lombardi and new PIAA president Jim Zack (District 4 chairman).

Why this crazy 3 p.m. start time as opposed to the usual 7 p.m.?  Well, more evil genius from the good doctor.  Because there are 9 new Board members, Dr. Lombardi and other Board members thought it would be good for members to mingle and get to know each other a little better and take some of the mystery out of the process.  Thus, the Board meeting starts early and dinner comes later, rather than the other way around.

But the real benefit of the new format is that Board meetings have moved much more quickly and efficiently.  It helps, too, that there have not been any major issues in recent months to clog up the works.  And there is no real hot-button issue on the agenda today.  Nor are any hearings scheduled for tomorrow.

So, this meeting has the potential to be one of the quickest and least controversial in recent memory.

After the usual wave of co-operative sponsorships and financial reports – things are looking better for PIAA on the latter – the first real note of interest is the number of fall sports disqualifications, which are up 13 percent in soccer and 20 percent in football, not a good sign.  There were 427 ejections in soccer (including girls), 356 players and 63 coaches.  Really, it’s time to calm down on the pitch.  Football wasn’t any better with 206 ejections, about the same as soccer when you extrapolate the number of games.

Most of the ejections were for foul language, according to assistant executive director Pat Gebhart.

A new policy in track and field will now permit PIAA to scratch an entire relay team at the state championship meet if a relay team member scratches for a reason other than a certified illness or injury and leaves the relay with less than four eligible members.  The key phrase is “certified injury or illness”.  An athlete cannot just wander up to the Meet Directors, say he’s hurt and leave the relay team.  That injury or illness must be certified by a physician of medicine or osteopathic medicine or the meet referree.

Should a relay team be scratched under those circumstances, the next place finisher from that district will be eligible to take that spot.

One thing that will come up toward the end of the meeting is a report from the football steering committee.  Since my daughter had to get her braces off today (yes, I scheduled it on a PIAA meeting day), I was unable to attend and have no idea what was discussed.  We’ll all find together, eh?

A request by Taylor allderdice of Pittsburgh to play a season-opening game against Steubenville, Ohio, on Thursday, Aug. 29, one day before the legal start date for football, was turned down by the Board by a 22-8 vote (the motion was made for denial).

PIAA HAS ENTERED EXECUTIVE SESSION

PIAA HAS EXITED EXECUTIVE SESSION

Discussion has turned to football and a proposed heat acclimation program.   The PIAA passed, on a first-reading basis, a policy that is modeled on New Jersey’s heat acclimation guidelines.

The highlights:

(1) The first three days of the PIAA-defined fall season will consist of no more than 3 hours of on-field practice time.  For football, helmets only may be worn the first two days; full protective gear can be used after that.

(2) The maximum allotted time for practice per day is 5 hours.  A 5-hour practice day may only be followed by a 3-hour practice day.  Further practices are affected by this rule.

(3) A minimum of a 3-hour recovery period must be provided after any session greater than 2 hours in length.  A 3-hour recovery period should be provided before a walkthrough.

(4) The proposed rule provides a guideline for incremental increases in activity to provide better heat acclimation.

Please note this rule passed on a first-reading basis only.  There will be a lot of discussion going forward on the matter, and there could be changes in the language.

I didn’t think I’d flush it completely down the hole.

The lack of updates, especially of PIAA championships (which was always the original focus of this site), is inexcusable.  While it’s true that I spend oodles of necessary time on the District 3 website (keeping up with the breadth of updates and changes is more time-consuming than one might imagine) and what’s left is generally spent being a parent (albeit part-time, thanks to someone’s selfish decision), there is really no excuse for letting the site lapse.

For that, I apologize greatly to those who, starting in 2010, had come to this site on a regular basis to enhance their knowledge of PIAA championships.  Frankly, I’ve let you down and I’ve let myself down.

Over the last few months, I’ve struggled about what to do about this site.  My original vision of this site – a one-stop place for Pennsylvania high school sports fans of all persuasions to find sports news and championship information – has long since faded.  I can honestly say the primary culprit is time, but it is also a significant shift in personal direction.

I have laughingly referred to my 2009 decision to leave the Patriot-News via buyout as “semi-retirement,” although I knew my RodFrisco.com project would keep me as busy as my work at the Patriot-News would … for far less compensation.  I wasn’t crazy about leaving the money behind, but I was even less crazy about not being able to watch and have limited contact with my daughters during their high school years.  I had lost way, way too many moments after my ex-wife and I separated in 2002, and I simply wasn’t going to let the remaining years pass the same way.  Thus, the decision.

But along the way, I found out something that surprised me:  I really didn’t miss newspaper reporting.  At all.  Considering that reporting is all I have done since the age of 16 and I absolutely loved the job right up to the day I signed the buyout papers, that is an astounding admission.

I still miss the cameraderie with colleagues, very much so.  But in all honesty, that’s about it.  I’ve had occasion to freelance along the way, and I have to admit that it has become tougher and tougher to gin up the mental energy necessary to become a reporter again.  In short, I really am semi-retired now in that sense.

But I still retain a deep passion for high school sports.  The difference now is that I’m working the field from the administrative side instead of the media side, and I absolutely love it.  I love what I’m doing for District 3 and what I do on occasion for the PIAA headquarters (technically, I am a PIAA employee and not a District 3 employee because PIAA is the legal entity that encompasses all districts).  So I am quite comfortable in my post-newspaper world.

But . . .

I am quite angry that I allowed this site to flop.  Really, I can’t allow that to stand.  It’s too much of a personal embarrassment.  So I’ve finally come to a decision.

I will not let the site simply stand in place as I have since the start of the school year.  Really, is there any point in having a site  that never changes?  Of course not.

So, what I will do is this:  I will trim the site down to something that is workable for the reduced amount of time I have to commit to it.

Going forward, I will provide links to PIAA championship brackets, events and news; those really don’t take up a great deal of time, although my District 3 work obviously is the priority.  Where possible, I will attend and recap PIAA championships and Board of Directors meetings.  While I will do limited writing, I will always strive to provide immediate news on the actions taken by PIAA (and by extension, state government).  Those actions affect every athlete and member school in the state and sometimes directly affect the parents of athletes (I can attest to that!)

Also, I will commit to upgrading my PIAA championship records and keeping them current.  One of my goals with RodFrisco.com was to become the repository of PIAA championship histories and records because, well, I’m quite the geek when it comes to that.  But those records and history have fallen into disrepair as well.  Time to get them up to speed and all shined up again.

I will post only occasionally because the time to write on a daily basis is the one thing that has been wiped out by my job. Also, the platform that I used to cover events live (Cover It Live) has gone from a free service to a very expensive pay service.  So I will not be doing live, interactive chats from PIAA events.  In addition, PIAA now has a live blogging policy in place that basically requires any blogger to pay a fee to do real-time updates (no, there is no employee discount).

Again, I apologize to those who had become loyal readers; your loyalty was not rewarded.  But here’s to giving it another, if downsized, go.

In truth, while I still harbor the enthusiasms that resulted in this creation, the time needed to act on those enthusiasms has evaporated.  You know the litany of reasons (excuses?): Kids, District 3 staff and administrative work and, well, kids.  But I haven’t said much about an increasingly important factor:  I actually enjoy being retired, such as you can call me retired.

On Friday, it is a toss-up whether I’ll attend a local football game or stay home and do some more D3 work while watching Boise State and Michigan State.  I’m not kidding when I say either option is equally enjoyable.  In truth, I’m as big of a college football fan as I am a Pennsylvania high school football fan.  And I will skip what could be a great season-opening game on Saturday between Bishop McDevitt and Harrisburg because I’ll be heading up to the ol’ hometown for a mini class reunion.   There’s that whole “retired” thing.

By and large, my reporting days are a thing of the past.  I’m still doing some freelance reporting on PIAA matters for newspapers around the state (it pays, and with 3 k ids eyeing up college, pay matters).  And I’ll still post PIAA meetings and issues here on RodFrisco.com as well as other news of interest now that the school year has begun.

But as a PIAA employee, I feel I should not do subjective rankings anymore.  I don’t necessarily consider doing rankings a conflict of interest, but I don’t want people to think my rankings bear the District 3 or PIAA imprimatur.  Neither District 3 nor PIAA officials have told me to desist; this is entirely my decision.  But I’ll bet they agree.

Too bad, too.  I LOVED doing rankings when I was at The Patriot-News and my first year on this site because I loved – and still love – high school football.  Attending a high school game remains a very pleasurable experience, even though I have no personal connection to the players and coaches; I just love the sport.  OK, I admit I am a Central Dauphin fan in all sports these days because the triplets are fully integrated CD students.  So, for now, I’m a CD dad, and that makes me a CD fan … and not just in field hockey (Go, Halle!).  So having a serious CD bias is an exclusionary factor, too.

But we can’t just leave the rankings unattended.  Directly below are links to the state rankings from The Patriot-News, Pennsylvania Football News and EasternPAFootball.com.  I link because, my current status notwithstanding, I love rankings.

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS

PENNSYLVANIA FOOTBALL NEWS

EASTERNPAFOOTBALL (scroll down to midpoint of home page for rankings, which are not quite complete as of today.  In big school, the top two spots are blank, although they’ll be filled by Central Dauphin and Archbishop Wood, although I’m not sure which school will take which spot.  The top spot in small school is open.  My wild guess is Wyomissing. Regardless, I’m always a big fan of what Dave Mika and his staff do with the site.)

Some pre-season football notes:

Sadly, Father Geibel, a small Catholic school in Connellsville, has already forfeited its season opener against Frazier because of a lack of bodies. Geibel originally had 25 players sign up, but only 15 were on the preseason roster.  Injuries have reduced that to 10, ergo the forfeit.  Mike White’s report on the Post-Gazette’s Varsity Blog is here.

Not exactly new news, but worth repeating that Father Judge of the Philadelphia Catholic League will open the season in County Meath, Ireland against Notre Dame Prep of Scottsdale, Arizona.  Pennsylvania teams have played outside of the Lower 48 before, primarily in Canada, but it is believed this is first state team to play across the pond.  Not cheap at $2,700 per person (52 players and 16 coaches … SIXTEEN coaches?).

Speaking of Canada, what in the world is my HS alma mater, Clearfield, doing opening the season – and christening its new turf field – against a Canadian team (St. Joan of Arc of Mississaugua, Ontario)?  I guess Penns Valley wasn’t available.  Oh, wait.  PV is the Week 2 opponent.  And to think we used to get beat up by the likes of State College, DuBois, and Lock Haven back in the day.  In fairness, Clearfield, while still a small Class AAA school (327 males, 29 above the AAA / AA cutoff) is a good fit in the Mountain League, even if fellow 9-AAA schools Bradford and St. Marys aren’t too crazy about it.  Joking aside, Clearfield’s schedule is fine.

Clairton HS from District 7 enters the season with a 47-game winning streak, currently the nation’s longest and a threat to Central Bucks West’s state record of 59 consecutive wins.  The Bears can break the record with another unbeaten 9-win regular season and a fifth straight WPIAL championship.

The Board had two basketball bracket proposals to consider, one a “traditional” bracket that essentially spread the district placers throughout the bracket and a “regional” proposal that groups qualifiers much more by geography.  The latter was developed by staff in response to complaints about first-round travel, which sometimes was substantial.

The problem with the regional proposal is that several large districts, especially District 7, would replay its tournament in a quarterfinal bracket; the traditional format paired District 7 teams against qualifiers from other districts.

After a significant discussion, the Board voted 20-8 to retain traditional bracketing for the upcoming two-year cycle.  That approved bracketing can be found here on pages 3 and 4 for girls and pages 7 and 8 for boys.  One change in girls Class A: the 5-1 vs. 6-4 first round game will be 5-2 vs. 6-3 while the 5-2 vs. 7-3 first round game will now be 5-1 vs. 7-3.

Also, all play-in games for basketball have been eliminated starting with the 2012-2013 season.

Also, the Board voted 25-3 to expand the team wrestling brackets to have 20 qualifiers in each class.  The original brackets for team wrestling qualified 16 teams in each class, a reduction from the last two years.  The wrestling steering committee felt the 16-team bracket that left out the District 11-AAA runner-up weakened the tournament.  Based on that argument, the steering committee felt the AA tournament should also be expanded to 20 teams.

Thus, District 11′s AAA runner-up will be included along with multiple qualifiers from Districts 1, 3 and 7 while Class AA will have additional qualifiers from Districts 4, 7, 9 and 10.

The approved team wrestling brackets for the next cycle can be found here on page 4.

In regional wrestling, the proposal to reduce the Southwest Region bracket from 14 to 12 was defeated handily.  The Southwest Region will remain at 14 qualifiers

All 2012-2013 amd 2013-2014 pairings, brackets and qualifiers can be accessed here.  All changes will be made and updated early next week.

The new assistant executive director is Pat Gebhart, a York County resident and PIAA basketball official.  More details on Gebhart will be posted as PIAA makes them available.

Pat will start his position on Aug. 13.

Currently, PIAA is hearing a complaint between McDowell High School and District 10 over a letter McDowell sent to students of Northwest Academy in Erie who reside in the Millcreek Twp. School District (McDowell’s district) that said those students would be ineligible to participate in McDowell athletics.  That is a violation of PIAA policy – students who attend schools that do not provide varsity sports are eligible to participate in athletics in their home public school district.

McDowell was censured by District 10 after a District 10 meeting on May 2, all while McDowell has been battling District 10 over its decision to force McDowell to participate in the District 10 football and lacrosse playoffs.  The last few years, McDowell, which has always had difficulty getting a football schedule, had gained entry to a District 7 schedule with the provision that McDowell qualify and participate in the District 7 playoffs.  That was approved by PIAA, but District 10 recently reversed that with a new policy.

McDowell has appealed that policy, but its hearing before PIAA has been postponed several times.  I am attending the hearing with the hope that the football matter is addressed.

The football matter will not be addressed today; it will be heard at the PIAA’s BOD meeting on Oct. 4-5.

At the the PIAA Board of Directors meeting, the first with Dr. Robert Lombardi as the new executive director and Jim Zack, superintendent of Shamokin as president.

The news tonight?  Looks like we’ll find out who the new assistant executive director will be (the recommendation will be made tonight, according to agenda) and the 2012-2013 pairings and brackets will be approved.  The big deal there:  There are two basketball proposals, a “traditional” set of brackets and another set that groups district placewinners regionally.

We’ll update frequently.

—

OK, it is a little odd without Brad Cashman at the center of the head table and numerous long-standing members absent like Rod Stone (District 1), Ray Wotkowski (District 6), Jack Wabby (District 11).  Not a bad thing, just odd.

—

Director of Business Affairs Greg Biller gives the bad news: PIAA was approximately $36,000 below budget for spring sports.  For the 2011-2012 school year, it looks like the PIAA will lose money, down about 1.5% from last year’s bottom line.  Biller did not provide a dollar figure.

Biller did say that one of PIAA’s increased costs is holding events at college facilities.  Biller gave some examples, and noted that costs were nearly double at college sites than similar events held at high school sites.

—

Fast-moving meeting has suddenly slammed into a wall.  District 7 is raising all kinds of concerns – 11 of them – about the pending Competitive Spirit Championships.  The D-7 reps read each concern verbatim.  Serious buzzkill (such as there’s a buzz at a BOD meeting).  But the concerns are legit.

Biggest concern from D-7 is that it hasn’t received enough information from PIAA to properly conduct a district championship.  It has also raised concerns about the number and quality of available officials (which will not be registered with PIAA), the way entrants are classified and whether males will be permitted (at current, no).

Lots and lots of discussion.  Lengthy but necessary: the PIAA championship is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 2, at Hersheypark Arena, and districts have to complete their championships at least a week before the state championship.  Most districts will be conducting their first spirit championships this year.

—

Hersheypark Stadium is retained as the site for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 PIAA Lacrosse Championships.  Lacrosse was bid out with the idea that a District 1 / District 12 site would have a big advantage (D1 and D12 teams have reached every state final since adoption in 2009), but the beautiful PP&L Park in Chester came in at $20,000, oddly enough a round $20,000 higher than Hersheypark, which offered the Stadium free for the next two years.

—

Dr. Lombardi does not reveal the name of the recommended new assistant executive director.  Reason: The Human Resources Committee has not made its recommendation yet; the only recommendation has come from staff.  So it won’t be a done deal until Friday morning.

—

Should be getting to the brackets and pairings soon.

Well, shut my keyboard.  Pairings and brackets have been pushed to Friday, and the meeting has been adjourned.

Back tomorrow morning around 8.

My good friend, Jim Butler of Clearfield, passed away earlier today, July 6, in Clearfield following complications from surgery.  Jim was in his mid-60s.

This is a crushing loss to Pennsylvania scholastic wrestling:  Jim had carved out his niche as one of the leading experts on statewide wrestling in the mid-1970s and carried through to the present.  His columns on wrestling the Clearfield Progress were among the most insightful in the commonwealth.

In addition, Jim was a huge dirt track racing fan and even developed some small businesses that revolved around racing.

But mostly, he was a friend who, along with former Clearfield Progress sports editor Fred Kavelak and for Progress sports writer Frank Roessner, had an enormous impact on my early career.  His unexpected passing is hurtful.

I apologize for some of the sketchy details; I’ll update when I receive more information.

But the Pennsylvania wrestling community has lost a true friend.  And so have I.

Class AA – Riverside vs. Pine Grove, 10:30 a.m.

Class AAAA – La Salle College High School vs. Council Rock South, 1 p.m.

Class A – Montgomery vs. Bishop McCort, 3:30 p.m.

Class AAA – Lampeter-Strasburg vs. West York, 6 p.m.

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Follow this link to access live updates from the PIAA Softball Championships from Penn State University.

Class A – Southern Columbia vs. Fannett-Metal, 10 a.m.

Class AAA – Big Spring vs. Valley View, 12;30 p.m.

Class AA – Warrior Run vs. Nshannock, 3 p.m.

Class AAAA – Central Bucks South vs. Bishop Shanahan, 5:30 p.m.

So it looks like that number of 413 wins will bump up a few more.  And it looks like the ill feelings that spilled out when Curry departed Berwick for Wyoming Valley west a few years ago have been pushed aside, if not forgotten.

If nothing else, some color has just been injected into Season 2012.

(Story courtesy of the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader)

How long before this picks up steam and becomes a reality?  I give it 5 years before some school district cuts football for the stated injury reason (some will cut for financial reasons; I have no doubt about that).  But the the massive lawsuit filed by former NFL players against the league for its supposed ignorance of the concussion issue will give this matter legs at the scholastic level.  Has to happen.

No matter that equipment has improved, tackling technique has improved, education related to concussion and spinal cord injury has improved, etc. No, football players are “gladiators” now, not student-athletes, apparently more intent on maiming than competing.

Boy, if only chess had head injuries …

By the way, my favorite quote from the board member making the call for the end to scholastic football was “We wouldn’t dream of putting our kids in a vehicle without a seat belt …”   Um, has she seen the inside of a school bus recently?  Unless the Council Rock SD has outfitted all of its buses with lap belts and shoulder harnesses for its precious cargo, there is usually just one seat belt on a school bus … for the adult driver.

Unrelated, I will have updated PIAA track and field histories up on the website later today and will work on getting all sports updated throughout the summer.