Abington Heights’ football team will compete as a Class 5A squad next season.
Abington Journal file photo
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of stories in which the Journal will take a look at what’s ahead for high school sports in the next two-year cycle (2020-21 and 2021-22).
By Tom Robinson
For Abington Journal
Lackawanna Trail and Abington Heights will both move to a higher classification in football as part of the next two-year cycle in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The PIAA collects boys and girls enrollment figures for three grades from every member school every two years and uses those numbers to determine classifications in each sport for the next two academic years.
After reaching the 2018 state final and 2019 state semifinal in CLass A, Lackawanna Trail will move up to Class 2A for at least the next two seasons, ending a long stretch in which the Lions traditionally competed among the smallest schools in Pennsylvania.
Abington Heights moves back up to Class 5A after two seasons in Class 4A.
Lackawanna Trail has 131 boys in the three grades, putting it two students above the total needed to remain in Class A, which will be for schools with 129 and fewer boys for the next two seasons.
Both schools have significantly larger boys enrollments than girls.
In a statistical oddity, moving out two classes and replacing them with two rising classes switches Abington Heights from having 48 more girls than boys to having 89 more boys than girls.
The official Abington Heights enrollment figures are 457 boys and 368 girls.
Lackawanna Trail’s enrollment totals are 131 boys and 106 girls.
The differences by gender create scenarios for each school where the boys compete in a higher classification than the corresponding girls team.
Abington Heights will be Class 3A — the larger of two classes — in boys swimming, but Class 2A in girls swimming. That is the opposite of where the swimming teams competed the past two seasons.
Lackawanna Trail will remain Class 2A in baseball, but drop to Class A in softball.
In all, five teams from Abington Heights and two from Lackawanna Trail will be changing classifications.
In addition to football and swimming, the Abington Heights boys are moving up in cross country and volleyball.
They will be Class 3A in each. In cross country, that is the highest of three classes while in boys volleyball, it is the higher of two.
The drop in swimming is the only change for the Abington Heights girls, who are one below the maximum for competing among small schools in the sport. They have 368 girls and Class 2A is for schools with 1-369 girls.
Lackawanna Trail’s two changes are football and softball.
Class A in softball is for schools with 1-107 girls. The Lady Lions have 106.
