2024 PIAA AA High School Wrestling State Finals 

I'm from SW PA and I've been bitching this for years...they wanna grab the best kids from each district them compete against teams who only choose from a 100 or so kids...any private school should have to compete in the higher classification in all sports....listen the kids from McCort are good no doubt but don't pat yourself on the back for beating these small schools when you got a team made up from 8+ different school districts.

National Preps

PSU kind of does the same at the college level. It is the decision at the state level. Parents and kids want the best training so they go to private schools. There really is not a problem because it makes the best wrestlers for the country.@@jjs9913

Facts

FR

I agree, the double mat setup should be to host the 3rd/4th and 5th/6th matches first, and then the spotlight on the #1/2 match. Each wrestler should have their moment in the spotlight for their accomplishments

The worst part was during the parade of champions they didn't even announce the finalists individually and announce their records or bios. They did all of that after the matches would start at each weight so you couldn't even hear it or were to distracted by the actual wrestling to pay attention to it. A lot of the kids should have felt cheated by not having that chance to hear their own name announced and be able to walk onto the mat center stage with the spotlight on them. PIAA should be ashamed.

Even my state of NM while having multiple mats announced our records and names.

If they dont have all 3 the place would be half empty

​@@martinphipps7686old white men run the show and they don't give a F about Wrestling they just want to go to Sleep at 7PM 😭😅😆😁🤣🥱😴

Only 2 of them in PA. AA and AAA. Decades old argument which one is better. AA is smaller schools, AAA larger. On paper, AAA should be better due to the larger pool of males to draw from but not always the case. First bout of this video perfect example, #1 and #2 in nation (at least per the announcer).

@@stevenmadden316 ok. Ya the boy who's 1st in the nation at 106, he's. Beast but he looks like a tough 5th grader, but he's super good. Now why not have an A .. like a single A division. And what about Wyoming seminary. what division are they

Wyoming Valley Seminary, per website, has 416 total students in high school. So they would most likely be in AA (assuming half are male, 208 total). If it's an all boys school they probably would still be AA. Divisions are strictly based on the amount of male (or female for girls' sports) students in the high school, grades 9-12. The PIAA will move schools up a division based on certain criteria if a school dominates their division for 2 or more years. Schools can also bump up voluntarily, but can not down go a division if they have too many students. So if Wyoming Valley were to participate in PIAA sanctioned tourneys, they most likely would get bumped up after 2 years. I can't answer why they are not sanctioned thou. Only in the last 2 decades or so have a majority of the private/charter schools been able to participate in football and basketball state playoffs. Kinda stinks though, because a high % of the state titles are won by those schools. Google St. Joe's Prep for football, almsot annually half their team are D1 recruits (Marvin Harrison Jr. is one, about to be the 1st WR taken in the draft). That's just one example. Basketball is far worse than football for sure. There's at least 1 or 2 public schools that win a state title in football (6 divisions). As far as why only 2 divisions, who tf knows!! Pennsylvania loves to have wacky rules and laws, high school sports no different. Some sports have 6 divisions (A thru 6A), I'd say about half have 4 divisions (A thru 4A) and the rest have just AA and AAA. I'd like to think only 2 in wrestling adds some mystique to an already tough title to win, but I'm not sure of the exact reason. Wrestling's popularity has blown up here in the last 15 to 20 years, definitely enough high school programs to have 4 competitive divisions. Sorry for the book, but your questions posed a lot to unravel.

@@stevenmadden316 No thank you that's a great answer.

AAA is harder because AA is only good private school wrestlers while AAA has a lot more public schools who can compete with the private schools

I believe its Pennsylvania inter-scholastic athletic association

@@0sm0sls Thank you!