The Butler School Board is expected to discuss potential legal action against WPIAL and PIAA tonight.
Both entities recently ruled that Butler football could not play in the District 10 playoffs as an associate member.
We spoke with attorney Tom Breth of Dillon McCandless King Coulter and Graham who serves as the district’s solicitor, and he says this ruling doesn’t make sense, especially after former WPIAL Executive Director Tim O’Malley initially granted Butler permission to play District 10 in January 2020.
“They’re saying that Tim O’Malley didn’t have the authority to do that. When asked why it took two years for the WPIAL to say anything about that, they blamed it on COVID,” Breth said.
Breth also took issue with how the WPIAL made their most recent decision.
“They didn’t write a letter to Butler. They didn’t invite Butler to their board meeting and say let’s talk about this. They didn’t do any of that,” Breth said. “They held a board meeting and voted without Butler’s participation in that meeting.”
“There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. I don’t think anybody can defend the way they handled this.”
Breth says no final decision has been made on a lawsuit, and is still hopeful both sides could work out a mutual agreement.
