ALIQUIPPA Pa. — Over the past several years the Aliquippa High School football program has had to play up multiple sections because of the PIAA competitive balance formula.

But on Wednesday, Aliquippa won their second appeal to stay down in PIAA Class 4A for the next two seasons.

Most recently the Quips were moved up to 5A after winning the PIAA 4A state championship this past November when they defeated Bishop McDevitt 34-27 on Dec. 9.

After being promoted to Class 5A on Jan. 5 the school appealed the decision to promote the team which the PIAA denied. Aliquippa superintendent Phillip Woods appealed the decision again which was discussed on Wednesday in a hearing with the state and Aliquippa school board.

PIAA director Bob Lombardi was the first to speak during Wednesday’s proceedings discussing the competitive balance formula along with the number of transfers the school has.

School officials and NFL Hall of Fame inductee and Aliquippa alum Ty Law spoke about how player safety is a major issue when playing up against a higher level of competition.

Even though the district has been extremely successful over the past several years if Aliquippa were to compete in 5A they would be playing in a section with an enrollment of just 117 students compared to the schools with four or five times as many students in other schools in the 5A class.

Woods expressed that they currently have a part-time athletic director along with a part-time athletic trainer and because of lack of funding within the program there would be a major difference in the school’s equipment trainer, staff, and athlete availability.

Another big part in the hearing on Wednesday was where the Aliquippa transfers came from which head coach Mike Warfield said that one moved from another country, one came from out of state, one came due to family separation, one attended three different school districts and one was ineligible to play all year.

Aliquippa will once again be playing in 4A for the next two seasons.