The 2024-25 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association sports season got underway Aug. 5 with the start of golf practices and the heat acclimatization process for football teams.
Golf is allowed to move right into competition Aug. 8.
Full football practices and the first legal practices for all other fall sports can start Aug. 12.
In those sports, teams can begin scrimmaging against other schools as early as Aug. 17, but the first regular-season contests, almost all of which are non-league events, are not allowed until Aug. 23. Tennis can start regular-season competition Aug. 19 and begins with league action.
A sport-by-sport look at key dates, major changes on the District 2 and Lackawanna League levels and plans for Abington Heights, Lackawanna Trail and Scranton Prep teams:
Boys golf
The Lackawanna League will remain in its two-division format, split by enrollment classifications, but with a very significant change.
Scranton Prep, which won a state team championship in 2020, will remain a Class 2A team for district and state competition.
The Cavaliers will play in the Class 3A Division, adding significant to their rivalry with Abington Heights as the league’s two strongest programs.
Scranton and West Scranton, the two teams at the bottom of the Class 3A standings, will play in the Class 2A Division.
While spending six of the Lackawanna League regular seasons competing strictly against Class 2A teams, Scranton Prep is 102-0-2 in the league in the last eight years. The Cavaliers are unbeaten in 110 regular-season league matches, three of them ties, since losing to Wallenpaupack midway through the 2015 season.
Both Abington Heights and Scranton Prep were 14-0 as division champions last season. Lackawanna Trail was 12-2 in Division 2, giving it the second-best record among returning teams, behind only Riverside.
The league schedule opens Aug. 9. Class 3A Division teams play home-and-home for a 12-match schedule. Class 2A Divisions play each other once for a 15-match schedule.
Scranton Prep plays at Abington Heights at Glen Oak Country Club Aug. 15 and the Comets visit the Cavaliers at Glenmaura National Sept. 10.
The annual Bob Simons Classic, for all Lackawanna League teams, is scheduled for Aug. 12.
Girls golf
Abington Heights and Scranton Prep are again among the District 2 programs playing an independent schedule, which opens Aug. 9.
Honesdale Golf Club, on Aug. 19, is the site of the Ann Marie Simons Classic for Lackawanna League schools that have the sport.
Girls tennis
The Lackawanna League opens Aug. 19 with a full schedule.
Scranton Prep is the unbeaten, defending champion while Abington Heights was one of three teams that tied for second place.
The league consists of the same 15 teams, each playing each other once for a 14-match schedule.
Football
All six classifications of District 2 football have undergone some changes.
In Class A, where Lackawanna Trail reached the state quarterfinals last season, District has gone from years of a subregional with District 1 to instead being part of a subregional with District 11.
Holy Cross moves down from Class 2A to join Lackawanna Trail and Old Forge. The District 11 teams in Class A are Marian Catholic, Pottsville Nativity and Tri-Valley.
Scranton Prep, another state quarterfinalist, remains in Class 3A, which has expanded from six to nine teams and otherwise also appears to have become more difficult. Berwick, Mid Valley, Tunkhannock and 2019 state champion Wyoming Area have moved into Class 3A while Carbondale has moved out.
Abington Heights remains in Class 5A, which now has just five teams instead of six. Scranton has returned to Class 6A, leaving only Delaware Valley, Pittston Area, West Scranton and Wyoming Valley West to compete against the Comets.
The 10-game schedule opens Aug. 23.
Field hockey
Abington Heights moves from Division 2 to Division 1 of the Wyoming Valley Conference after going undefeated in the WVC last season.
The Comets will now be in the same division as 2023 Class A state finalist Lackawanna Trail because all District 2 teams in the sport play in the WVC.
Dallas moves from Division 2 to Division 1, trading places with Abington Heights.
Although the WVC opens Aug. 27, Division 1 does not open until the next day.
Girls volleyball
Lakeland has joined the Lackawanna League and will make its debut by hosting Lackawanna Trail when the league opens Aug. 29.
The league now features 16 teams and a 15-match schedule.
Abington Heights and Lackawanna Trail were each winning teams last season, finishing fifth and sixth in the standings.
Boys soccer
The three-division format remains for the division, which opens Sept. 3.
Abington Heights won Division 1 last season and Scranton Prep finished in a second-place tie. Both teams remain in the top division.
Girls soccer
The Lackawanna League, which opens Sept. 4, switches from three divisions to two.
Mid Valley, the unbeaten Division 3 champion a year ago, jumps up to join the six holdovers in the new Division 1.
Abington Heights, which went on to make its first state championship game appearance, was unbeaten champion of Division 1 last season.
The division still includes Scranton Prep, Valley View, Delaware Valley, North Pocono and Wallenpaupack.
Boys and girls cross country
The Lackawanna League maintains its cluster scheduling format where eight groups of three teams each compete along with each other every week, allowing every team to meet all 23 league opponents.
Abington Heights, the state Class 3A runner-up, was the unbeaten league girls champion last year.
The Comets run each week with North Pocono and Valley View. Lackawanna Trail runs with Lakeland and Western Wayne. Scranton Prep runs with Holy Cross and Carbondale.
