ALLENTOWN – The annual District 11 Media Press Conference on Thursday brought forth a variety of topics.

The event served as an introduction to St. Luke’s new state-of-the-art Fitness and Sports Performance Center, an indoor training facility that will be climate controlled and be available for use on a year-round basis.

There will be three turf fields that will be able to accommodate baseball, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and softball. It is the fifth facility from St. Luke’s to provide such amenities.

More than just an unveiling and a continuation of a partnership that is now in its sixth year, it was also an opportunity to survey the state of sports across the district.

Transfer talk

Whitehall Athletic Director and District 11 Chairman Bob Hartman championed the new transfer rules that have been put in place, something he hopes will continue to level the playing field.

“There is a postseason lack of eligibility for any athlete who transfers after completing their 10th-grade season,” said Hartman. “We’ve dealt with a number of those situations; the reasons for waiver are extreme and severe hardships, and we’ve dealt with those on a number of occasions already this year, and we’ll continue to deal with those throughout the school year.

“Also, a new rule that’s in place is that any athlete who transfers after the midpoint of their season, which in football is already here, and in many of our other fall sports is here, if they transfer from School A after the midpoint, or 50 percent of the contests, and go to School B, they’ve been considered to have played their entire season. At the new school, they cannot compete. I don’t think we’ve experienced that happen yet, because we’re right about at that point.”

Hartman also clarified how an increased number of transfers into a school can potentially alter its district classification.

“The other big thing that’s out that there as part of this transfer revision is the idea of the classification formula that has been developed by the PIAA office,” said Hartman. “It’s a success formula that is combined with the number of transfers a school receives that may result in a school going up in classification based on receiving a certain number of transfers. Currently, that is five transfers over a two-year period in football, and two transfers over a two-year period in basketball. If you do that, and still are not good, it won’t affect you. If you do that, and are extremely good, and play deep into the state playoffs, there is a chance that you will move up in classification.

“We see this as problematic, generally in our smaller classes. This generally has no effect in our larger classes, but we’ve seen some very small schools that are incredibly successful based on the number of transfers and going deep into the tournament. In the future, if that formula works out, they would move up in class. The following cycling if they continue to be successful, they would move up again. It would be very difficult for them to move back in class. We will see that for the first time with this new classification cycle … when the new numbers come out, we may see some schools that are required to go up in classification. That’s definitely something new, and hopefully we’ll change the landscape a little bit.”

Championship sites

Sites of championship facilities for the fall season will now include DeSales University for cross country, which is set for Wednesday, Oct. 23. This is a change from Bethlehem Municipal Golf Club.

Olde Homestead Golf Club will host the qualifying round of the District 11 Golf Championships on Monday. Steel Club will be the site of the district championship tournament on Oct. 7.

Lehigh University will host the first and second rounds of the District 11 Class 2A and 3A girls tennis tournaments on Monday, with Parkland to be the site for the quarterfinals and semis the next day. The finals will be held at Lehigh on Thursday.

District data

• The second-annual District 11 Hall of Fame Induction ceremony will take place Oct. 20 at the Holiday Inn in Fogelsville. Palmerton’s Nicole Levandusky and Bill Mlkvy are among the 17-person class to be honored this year.

• The 2019-20 school year will be the second year of the current classification cycle. On Tuesday, all member schools within the Commonwealth who are members of the PIAA will turn in enrollment data, and next year will begin a new cycle, meaning the landscape could look quite different a year from now depending on whether schools see an increase or reduction in size.