Community trying to reverse controversial change keeping Allderdice soccer from playoff berth

PITTSBURGH — The Allderdice Boys’ Soccer Team was well on its way to the WPIAL playoffs. In fact, they added another win to their record this afternoon against Uniontown. But just a few days ago, with more than half the season in the books, Allderdice found out they’re no longer eligible because of a league change that happened more than a year ago.

“Just to have it stripped away from us takes the souls out of kids,” Jacek Piekut said.

Before Tuesday’s game, the Allderdice Boys’ Soccer Team linked arms in solidarity over the WPIAL exclusion. Senior Jacek Piekut called the decision disappointing and crushing.

“We’ve decided to play every game like it still counts, and I feel like this situation has added more fuel to the fire,” Piekut said. “Now, we play with a chip on our shoulders to prove that we belong.”

Starting this school year, Allderdice and Obama Boys and Girls soccer, Allderdice Boys and Girls tennis and Allderdice baseball are competing in a City League instead of the WPIAL, which only leaves Allderdice and Obama competing against each other in soccer to get to States. Piekut says they just found out about this change last week, but the decision was made in 2023 after a vote by the PIAA member schools and then the PIAA board of directors.

“That was poor communication on my part, and I profusely apologize for that,” said PPS Director of Interscholastic Athletics Karen Arnold. “I should have communicated this at the very least in the summer and probably should have communicated it outright when the vote happened in late 2023.”

PPS Director of Interscholastic Athletics Karen Arnold believes this creates more opportunities for student athletes and offers an easier path to the state playoffs.

“This is just my personal perspective,” Arnold said. “They won’t have the opportunity if they wanted to play for a WPIAL championship to go that route, and I’m sorry for that again, but they’re still having the opportunity to vie for a state championship. I understand there’s questions about recruitment and things like that. If kids play well, they will be seen and they will be recruited.”

Parents such as Aimee Kane disagree.

“This is consequential,” Kane said. “My kid cares so much about this that my husband and I are thinking about moving. And we can. I’m not saying we will because we love Squirrel Hill, and we love Allderdice, and it sounds insane to move your whole life for one kid’s sport.”

Kane wanted to also stress the importance of competing for the chance to play at Highmark Stadium.

“The reason it’s so cool is because it’s one mile away at Highmark Stadium. It’s where The Riverhounds play,” Kane said. “It’s one mile away. That’s the one you want to play in because Allderdice is six miles away. All the kids in the community can come. The friends. Neighbors. Instead, they get this chance that the athletic director says is a good deal. That good deal is the team they’d play is 100 miles north of Pittsburgh, and they would play on a weeknight. That’s not a good deal.”

The Allderdice community also wants to know the reason behind the change.

“All we know is it’s hurting kids, and somebody can stand up and make a difference and let these kids play in the section that they were assigned,” Kane said.

Piekut started a petition calling on the WPIAL to let Allderdice play since they were on track to make it to the playoffs in the league they’ve been a part of for the last 12 years. It has more than 1,600 signatures.

“We’ve been talking with many parents throughout the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and they are just absolutely frustrated,” Kane said. “There are petitions. Letters going around. There are calls with many people. It just feels like a really terrible gut punch, and it just also looks like people are not putting the interests of the kids first.”

Channel 11 sent an email to the WPIAL and is still waiting to receive a response.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

©2024 Cox Media Group