Who's THEY??

Have you ever been somewhere and someone asks you, "Hey, why don't THEY do this"? Well, it's taken a long time to figure this out, but I think I know who they are.
In the world of interscholastic athletics, which by the way is 1500 member schools, 14,000 referees and 250,000 athletes, strong; it's the 31 volunteers that make up the PIAA Board of Directors. They are THEY.

THEY are from all around the state and come together every other month to ensure that educational based athletics are following the edicts as developed by the membership of schools and registered sports officials. Yes, that's right; volunteers who are elected by their schools and their brother and sister officials to make sure the edicts of athletic competition are applied evenly and fairly.

Does that mean that everyone agrees with these decisions, heck no. But what it does mean, is THEY promote a uniformity of standards that protect the educational athletic experience and conserve the values of interscholastic competition at all levels of play. This body of 31 educationally based individuals is transposed into a principal based organization that ensures that each and every one of the 250,000 athletes participating in Pennsylvania conforms to the proper age, health and academic standards collectively. That's a herculean task.

So next time, when someone asks, "Hey, why don't THEY do this? You'll have an idea of what a monumental task it is to evenly and fairly adjudicate a program of 13 different sports in 501 school districts incorporating 26 different championship events. In that perspective, I believe, THEY have done good.