Bob O'Connor agrees.... put the city kids into the WPIAL

A long-standing proposal of mine got the attention of Mayor Bob O'Connor today. He was giving an interview to KDKA about the shootings among our youth in downtown yesterday and at Westinghouse in the morning yesterday too.

Bob went into the school and attended a girls basketball game. I told him the final score and said that we should get our kids into the WPIAL.

He said, "You're right."

I'm ready to make this happen in the first weeks of joining city council.

Say what???? Some readers might not understand what I'm ranting about. Let me explain.

The city schools have a city league. They play against each other day-in-and-day-out. The game yesterday was Westinghouse vs. Carrick, for example, 71-31, final score. That's no fun. Nobody wins.

We have an "iron-curtin" of sorts that rings the city so that the city kids play against city school competition -- and the suburban kids play against other suburban schools. The suburban schools, by and large, are part of the WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League).

Some pre-season, exhibition, post-season, tournament games happen between schools from the city to those from around the region. But, those competitions don't happen as they should, day-to-day.

We need to get our kids to compete in the global marketplace but can't even get them to compete with Shaler Area, Baldwin or Keystone Oaks.

To rally the citizens for the sake of the schools and performance in academics -- we need to hold a rally and celebrate competition from the outside.