Jan. 26—Wyomissing has won its appeal in front of the PIAA Board of Directors Wednesday and will remain in Class 3A for football for the next two seasons.
The board voted 21-4 with one abstention to grant Wyomissing its appeal. The meeting was held via Zoom.
The Spartans, the Class 3A runners-up the last two seasons, were poised to be moved up to Class 4A due to the PIAA's competition formula.
The formula takes into account enrollment, success and athletic transfers.
"If a school receives (at least) six points in the previous (two-year) classification cycle," the PIAA rule reads, "and accepts transfer students by sport and gender that equals or exceeds the stated number, they will move up one classification."
Wyomissing received four points apiece for their second-place finishes, giving the Spartans eight. The stated number of transfers is three in football, which means that the PIAA contends that Wyomissing had at least three transfers in the last two years.
After Wyomissing's written appeal was rejected earlier this month, school district officials opted to move into the next phase of the appeals process, which was Wednesday's hearing.
Wyomissing presented its case to the board for about 50 minutes. The hearing was closed to the media and public.
Before going into the closed meeting, Frank Majikes, president of the PIAA board, said Wyomissing was appealing based on the unique circumstances of its transfers: divorce, homelessness and financial hardship.
Representing Wyomissing were superintendent Robert Scoboria, high school/junior high principal Dr. Corey Jones, assistant principal Dr. Matthew Redcay and athletic director Frank Ferrandino.
Voting against the motion to allow the Spartans to remain in Class 3A were Majikes, who is also the District 2 chairman; Robert Hartman, vice president of the board and District 11 chairman; Mike Hudak, the PIAA male officials representative; and Michael Cacciotti, the private schools representative. Dr. Michael Barber abstained since he wasn't in on the deliberations.
The Spartans were among seven football teams scheduled to move up one class based on the PIAA's formula.
Southern Columbia, which won the Class 2A title last month, and Redbank Valley, the Class 1A runner-up, won their appeals, according to media reports earlier this month, without needing to go to the board meeting.
Aliquippa, the Class 4A champion, also won its appeal before the board of directors Wednesday and will not move up to Class 5A.
Erie Cathedral Prep also was scheduled to have an appeals hearing Wednesday, but that was pushed back because of the length of Aliquippa's arguments.