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STATE COLLEGE -- The PIAA revealed its plan to change the Class 2A boys high school wrestling regional format at its meeting at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on Wednesday.
Under the proposed new format, District 6 wrestlers would compete against District 10 wrestlers in the Northwest region while District 5 wrestlers would continue to wrestle against WPIAL opponents in the Southwest region.
The change will allow District 6 to maintain six qualifiers from districts into regionals and add a qualifier for District 5, which will now advance four instead of three out of districts if the plan goes through.
"I certainly understand the travel issues," District 6 chairman Ralph Cecere said. "We had been with District 7 and District 5 and had that little group there. But it was my understanding through the steering committee that we were going to lose qualifiers if we went that route. I realize there's a little more travel involved with District 10, but we were able to get six qualifiers. I think that's going to give our double-A wrestlers a better opportunity to compete at the state level and possibly end up with a state championship."
Five wrestlers will advance out of regionals in the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest and Southwest regions in the new format.
Eighty-six wrestlers were in the Southwest region that featured District 5, 6 and 7 last year. That number would now be 61 with just District 5 and 7. In the Northwest region where District 6 will compete with District 10, there will be 52 competitors, the smallest of the four regions. The Northeast will have Districts 2, 4 and 9 with 61 wrestlers, and the Southeast will have Districts 1, 3, 11 and 12 with 62 wrestlers.
The Class 3A boys field will remain the same with District 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 competing in the West region. District 6 will advance four wrestlers from districts, and five wrestlers will move on from the regional to states.
The first reading of the new wrestling format passed on a 21-10 vote.
Tennis change
High school tennis coaches will now be permitted to "coach on the fly" after changes made by the PIAA.
"They can coach in between points," PIAA Senior Director of Member School Services & Sport Jennifer Grassel said. "In between points, they are able to say something now as long as they are off the competition surface on and on the side of their student. We made an adjustment from where they used to only be able to at the end of each game."
Longtime Hollidaysburg boys and girls coach Brian Denis was pleased with the change.
"I am welcoming it," Denis said. "I look at sports like basketball and football, and you can literally coach every play. You're constantly coaching. I know from coaching elementary basketball, I enjoy just talking to the kids the entire game. I never understood that we could only coach on changeovers. I know for a fact that there have been so many times where you want to tell the kids so much stuff, and you get 90 seconds to talk to them, and there's no way."
Now, as long as the ball isn't in play, the coach can speak to his players.
"As a coach, it's awesome," Denis said. "Anything that pops in your brain and you want to tell them right then and there, you can tell them."
Denis believes it will make a bigger impact during tightly-contested matches when he's trying to watch over multiple contests.
"When you're watching five matches at once in big matches, and you're trying to remember what to tell them, it's a nightmare," Denis said. "It's an awesome move. As a longtime coach, that's my job. I want to coach. Even in a match you have in hand, but you have some younger kids, it's great, because you have kids who are like sponges who can soak up everything you say."
Other news
■ Arbiter will be used for the PIAA's data management, such as schedules.
■ Hometown ticketing was selected to continue as the PIAA's online ticket handler for the next four years.
■ The PIAA had 986 broadcast requests in the 2025-2026 season.
■ In sub-varsity (junior varsity, junior high and middle school) softball games, teams can use up to 12 batters in a lineup. There would still only be nine players in the field, but the other hitters -- extra hitters -- could switch into the field later in the game and fielders could switch into an EH role, as long as their position in the order did not change.
If a player who is an EH is injured and cannot continue, when their spot in the lineup came up, it would be recorded as an out.
■ Clearfield and Curwensville were approved as a co-op in high school boys soccer.
■ Conemaugh Township and Windber terminated their boys golf co-op.
■ Northern Bedford and Tussey Mountain terminated their middle school boys and girls cross country co-op.