Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/28/12
The news was not good for Philly region teams when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) convened on Thursday for its annual summer meetings.
Despite opening up the bids for a new site for the 2013 and 2014 championship games, HersheyPark Stadium will again be the location.
A bid was made by PPL Park in Chester, but according to Rod Frisco of rodfrisco.com, the cost would have been $20,000 to hold the event there and there was not cost to hold the games at Hershey. Hershey has hosted each of the championship games since the tourney began in 2009.
The PIAA considered moving the championships to a site in Southeast region since every boys’ and girls’ team that has qualified for the finals has come from Districts 1 and 12.
Meanwhile, the state brackets were released and District 1 lost a spot in the girls’ tourney for 2013 and 2014. Now, District 1 will qualify six teams to the championships. One spot was lost because Districts 2 and 4 (five teams apiece) will now each receive one berth each; previously the districts were combined.
In the boys’ brackets, District 1 still has five berths. One berth was taken from District 7 and given to District 2-4, which each will receive a full berth. Previously, the districts – which combine for 10 teams – had one berth between them.
Based on its numbers, District 12 – which has sent a team to the state finals all four years of the tourney – could have been awarded a second berth since it has 17 teams and a 1.5543 qualifier number.
PIAA Girls berths for 2013-2014
District 1 – 70 teams, 6 berths
District 2 – 5 teams, 1 berth
District 3 – 39 teams, 3 berths
District 4 – 5 teams, 1 berth
District 6/10 – 5 teams, 1 berth
District 7 – 31 teams, 2 berths
District 11 – 9 teams, 1 berth
District 12 – 15 teams, 1 berth
Total girls’ teams – 179
PIAA Boys’ berths
District 1 – 58 teams, 5 berths
District 2 – 6 teams, 1 berth
District 3 – 45 teams, 4 berths
District 4 – 4 teams, 1 berth
Districts 6/10 – 5 teams, 1 berth
District 7 – 30 teams, 2 berths
District 11 – 10 teams, 1 berth
District 12 – 17 teams, 1 berth
Total boys’ teams – 175
