The Deer Lakes boys basketball players and coaches have had a couple of days to digest their fate for the next two years in the latest WPIAL section realignment released earlier this week.
The Lancers, who made it to the WPIAL semifinals and earned another trip to the state playoffs this past season, are making a significant lateral move in Class 4A away from some entertaining local section rivalries in the Alle-Kiski Valley.
Coach Albie Fletcher on Thursday morning said he was a little confused and somewhat disappointed with the move, but he also was confident that his team, led by rising senior guard/forward Evan Moore, the Valley News Dispatch Boys Player of the Year, will settle into the new section matchups and be ready to make another playoff run.
“I was really hoping that we would be able to keep that conference together, mainly for the kids and for the communities,” said Fletcher of the Lancers’ longstanding rivalries with Freeport, Knoch, Highlands, Burrell and Valley.
“Those Tuesday and Friday section games when you are playing local rivals are pretty special and what it’s all about. Unfortunately, we are going to lose a lot of that. But hopefully, we will be able to get out-of-conference games set up with a number of them.”
Deer Lakes finished tied for fourth with Highlands in Section 1 at 5-7, one game behind Burrell and also trailing North Catholic and WPIAL champion Knoch. The Lancers played several close section games, and Fletcher said it helped his team in the playoffs, a run that ended with a loss to Obama Academy in the PIAA quarterfinals.
Freeport, Knoch, Highlands, Burrell and Valley will remain together in Section 1 with Derry joining the group. Deer Lakes leaves with North Catholic, and the Lancers and Trojans join Section 4 with Avonworth, Hampton, East Allegheny and West Mifflin.
Deer Lakes is no stranger to neighboring Hampton, having played the Talbots in an early season contest the past two seasons. The Lancers also faced West Mifflin at the Gateway Tournament in late December and rolled past the Titans by 18 points.
“That conference is all over the place in terms of travel and distance,” said Fletcher as he sized up the new alignment. “But we’re looking forward to the new challenges. Obviously, there are some good programs in there. We were hoping we would be with Hampton. It just made sense because they’re right next door to us. That can be a good rivalry and a nice community game. But there are some long trips in there.”
Plum, meanwhile, will be in Section 2-5A and hopes to get back to the WPIAL playoffs against rivals Penn Hills, Gateway and others, while Kiski Area remains in Section 1 with the likes of Franklin Regional, Penn-Trafford and Armstrong.
Fox Chapel returns to a Class 6A section that sees Woodland Hills and New Castle leave and move down to Class 5A and Central Catholic move in from the other Class 6A section.
Apollo-Ridge again will do battle in Section 3-3A with fellow section holdovers Shady Side Academy, South Allegheny and Steel Valley.
Riverview and Springdale stay together in Section 1-2A against the likes of Jeannette and last year’s WPIAL Class A champion and PIAA runner-up Neighborhood Academy.
The Dynamos were a playoff qualifier last year along with St. Joseph, which will compete again in Section 2-A and face Geibel Catholic, Greensburg Central Catholic, Monessen, Imani Chrisitan and Serra Catholic.
Imani voluntarily played up in Class 6A the past two years but will come back down to Class A for the next two-year cycle.
Leechburg hopes a move down to Class A will help it rebound. The Blue Devils won just one section game last year and finished 3-18 overall.
Fox Chapel girls move up
Foxes coach Marty Matvey hoped his fast, guard-oriented team would stay in Class 5A and settle back in with the likes of last year’s fellow playoff qualifiers Plum and Penn Hills and others.
Fox Chapel, instead, outgrew Class 5A.
But not by much.
The latest figures for the realignment put the Foxes 34 girls over the limit and into Class 6A. Matvey said his team will be much smaller than its new section foes: North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, North Hills, Butler, Norwin and Pine-Richland.
“There is a lot of familiarity with these teams,” said Matvey, who welcomes back a good number of key contributors from last year’s WPIAL playoff qualifier while having to say goodbye to point guard Lyla Jablon, who will continue to play in college at Division III Case Western.
“This section is loaded with great coaches and talented players. I’ve known a lot of these coaches for a long time, and it’s nice to be back with them. The have all participated, except for North Allegheny, in our summer and fall leagues at some point.
“Class 5A has some really good teams, but the top teams in Class 6A are pretty darn elite. There are going to be no nights off. I think we are the ones with the most to prove moving up with our lack of school size in comparison and our lack of physical size, which unfortunately is still an issue.”
While the Foxes are on the move – they are one of two A-K Valley girls teams (Springdale) to switch classifications – their section mate the past two years, Plum, hopes to again be a Class 5A section champ.
The Mustangs claimed the program’s first section crown this past season and will hope to fend off the challenges of Gateway, Hampton, Oakland Catholic, Penn Hills, Shaler, and Woodland Hills in a somewhat revamped Section 2.
Oakland Catholic, which defeated Blackhawk for the WPIAL Class 4A title in February, has moved up voluntarily to Class 5A.
Kiski Area, a 2026 playoff qualifier, is in the Section 1-5A mix with Armstrong, Franklin Regional, Latrobe, Indiana, McKeesport and Penn-Trafford.
There will be a new Section 1-4A girls champ with Oakland Catholic’s departure, but section runner-up North Catholic remains and will contend with 2026 playoff qualifiers Freeport and Burrell. Knoch was the first team out of the section playoff mix.
Deer Lakes hopes to again make the Class 3A playoffs against the likes of heavyweights Greensburg Central Catholic and Shady Side Academy in Section 2.
Playoff qualifiers Apollo-Ridge and Riverview again will share the stage in Section 4-2A and will be joined by Springdale, which hopes to improve on last year’s 3-19 overall record and 2-12 mark Section 1-A.
St. Joseph ran its playoff-qualifying streak to seven seasons in 2026 with a fourth-place finish in Section 2-A. The Spartans are back in Section 2, but the top three teams are not.
Union and Sewickley Academy both moved up to Class 2A, while section champion Aquinas Academy moved over to Section 1.
The Spartans’ section slate includes two games against Geibel in a rematch of the teams’ WPIAL first round thriller in February. Leechburg also returns to the section.
Valley, which canceled its entire 2025-26 season because of a lack of enough players, will play an independent schedule the next two years. That also is the plan with Highlands, which decided to forgo the final seven games of this past season, citing the safety of its remaining players as a main reason for the decision.