More than five months ago, high school football teams everywhere took to their practice fields and battled through the grueling heat and two-a-day practices with one goal in mind — to play for a championship.
Five of the six games that were contested for PIAA championships had teams that participated in the WPIAL and/or City League. An incredible accomplishment in itself, but behind the win-and-survive mentality was the drive and endurance that these teams had to adopt beginning Aug. 26 with the Week 0 contests and ending with the PIAA Class 6A championship Dec. 10.
Along the way, plenty of individuals had outstanding performances and made incredible plays, while several teams will be remembered for years to come. Among them, Westinghouse showed just what it means to be “Midnight Dawgs” by becoming the first City League team to advance to a PIAA championship since Perry in 1997.
Not every team had magnificent seasons from the opening kickoff like the Bulldogs, however. Pine-Richland and Belle Vernon got off to slow starts and could have easily packed it in after three or four weeks, but instead turned it around and captured state championships. We also saw an incredible 36-game winning streak come to an end when Aliquippa beat Central Valley.
As a final curtain call to the 2022 season, the Union Progress has reviewed the highlights and combed through all the statistics to come up with its list of award winners. Coming Sunday, the PUP will announce its all-star team along with player and coach of the year selections.
What’s unique about the PUP’s all-star team is the fact that, instead of simply naming a bunch of top players, the Union Progress sports staff — with input from high school coaches — went position by position and put together an actual all-star team. We name the top players in every position to come up with a lineup of 11 all-stars on each side of the ball plus special teams.
There were truly several players who could have been named in every position, but like every coach’s dilemma, we could only choose one player to start on our team. On Sunday, take a look at the 2022 PUP all-star team and you decide whether it’s good enough to make a run for a PIAA championship.
Rick, an associate sports editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and working as sports editor for the Union Progress. Contact him at rdavis@unionprogress.com.