Page 6 - PIAA District III 2020 Football Championship Program

ABOUT DISTRICT III

The state of Pennsylvania is divided in 12 geographic districts for PIAA administrative purposes. Each district has a
district committee elected by member schools from within that District. Every committee elects a chairman who
becomes that District’s representative on the PIAA Board of Directors. District III has an additional representative on
the State Board based on the number of members schools. District I and District XII also have an additional
representative; District VII has two additional representatives.
District III encompasses the counties of Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon,
Perry and York. Within this 10 county-area are 125 member senior high schools.
These member schools elect their District Committee to oversee various interscholastic programs within the District.
While the District Committee must follow all PIAA rules and regulations, each district has autonomy in administering
athletic contests prior to the PIAA interdistrict level.
District III is home to the following leagues: Berks County Interscholastic Athletic Association, Christian Commonwealth
Athletic Conference, Lancaster-Lebanon League, Mid-Penn Conference, Tri-Valley League and York-Adams
Interscholastic Athletic Association. A small number of schools retain independent status.

The voting rules of the District mandate that all leagues shall have at least one representative on the Committee as a
voting member. These representatives are elected by the members schools at an Annual Meeting held each April. In
addition, a representative from the Pennsylvania School Board Association, a male officials’ representative, a female
officials’ representative, male and female parents’ representatives and a girls athletics representative stand as voting
members of the District III committee. There are 16 voting members plus seven non-voting members on the
Committee.
The District Committee develops, organizes and directs 26 District III championships (13 for boys, 13 for girls) in 16
different sports. Broken down by gender and class, the District conducts 71 team championships and 30 individual
championships. Among the 30 individual championships, the District crowns 168 champions each year.

These championships are a prerequisite to qualification for PIAA championships. In the fall, these include boys and girls
cross country, field hockey, boys and girls golf, football, boys and girls soccer, girls tennis and girls volleyball. In the win-
ter, championships conducted are boys and girls basketball, boys and girls swimming & diving, wrestling and
competitive spirit. While there is no PIAA championship for bowling, District III does conduct an individual
championship for boys and girls bowling. The spring championships are baseball, boys and girls lacrosse, softball, boys
and girls outdoor track and field, boys tennis and boys volleyball.

The complete cost of funding these championships comes from the spectator ticket admission fees at District III playoff
events. This money is used to fund sports at which no admission fee is charged and where the cost exceeds the income,
insurance and administrative costs. At the end of each school year, surplus funds are returned to the schools that
participated in the sports that created the surplus. Schools do not pay District dues or provide money to the District in
any form with the exception of an entry fee in competitive spirit.

OUR MISSION
 Organize, develop and direct athletic programs that will promote the health and physical welfare of all
participants, both male and female.
 Foster good sportsmanship and safeguard the educational values of interscholastic athletics.
 Develop and enforce rules adopted by the member schools that regulate interscholastic athletic compe-
tition.
 Organize and conduct a program of District III championship tournaments in various fields of athletic
competition.

2 0 2 0 D I S T R I C T I I I O F F I C I A L P R O G R A M