Feb 3, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 5 min read

One of the first items of discussion for Tim Bukowski when he applied for the Uniontown football head coach position was the possibility of the team getting back into the WPIAL.

After one year at the helm, Bukowski got his wish on Monday night.

The Uniontown Area school board voted to approve the football program’s request to apply for readmission into the WPIAL.

“We’re excited to announce our return to the WPIAL beginning in the 2026-27 school year,” Uniontown athletic director Harry Kaufman said after Monday night’s meeting. “After many talks with school leadership, coaches, families and league officials, we believe this step reflects our commitment to student growth, school spirit, and athletic excellence. Uniontown has a rich history within the League and it is our hope to continue and honor that tradition moving forward.

“This was a goal of Coach Bukowski and his staff when arriving at Uniontown and one that we all are looking forward to.”

Uniontown withdrew from the WPIAL before the 2021 season. At the time the Red Raiders were mired in a 34-game losing streak, coming off an 0-2 record during the COVID-affected 2020 season under coach Cedric Lloyd and ended the year with a roster of fewer than 20 players.

Uniontown has played as an independent the last five seasons, four under coach Keith Jeffries and the last one under Bukowski, and has compiled a 17-28 record in that span. The Red Raiders’ last victory as a member of the WPIAL was on Oct. 14, 2016 at Laurel Highlands, 27-10, under coach John Fortugna.

“Even with the interview process with the administration and Harry, we talked about getting back into the WPIAL,” Bukowski said. “I felt it was important for the program just from a competitive standpoint and it gives the guys more to play for. If you’re in western Pennsylvania, you want to play in the WPIAL.

“We’re real happy with the decision the board made. Actually a couple of the board members reached out and wanted input, then I think they were sold on the fact as well.”

Bukowski pointed out the change will make Kaufman’s job a lot easier.

“From Harry’s standpoint, it’s tough to schedule when you’re not in the WPIAL,” Bukowski said. “We’re playing two teams from Maryland, a team from Ohio who was a powerhouse and a two-time state champ.”

Uniontown did play Fayette County rivals Laurel Highlands, Brownsville, Albert Gallatin and Connellsville last season. All but the Mustangs were independents.

Albert Gallatin, the most successful independent team in the area by far which went a 10-0 last year, also is considering rejoining the WPIAL and, if so, there’s a possibility the two could end up in the same conference, likely in Class 4A, according to Bukowski.

“Hopefully now we’ll get in a conference with some local teams and have some good rivalry games,” Bukowski said. “I was hoping for 3A but we’re going to be a 4A team based on our freshmen class. We have a real big freshmen group, over 250 students, so they kind of bumped us up. If you would’ve based it off of last year’s class we would’ve been triple-A, but we’ll be 4A.”

The freshman class will add plenty of depth to the 2026 roster.

“The numbers are definitely going to be up,” Bukowski said. “We had 42 players last year. We’re expecting over 50. We started weight-lifting and we’re getting over 30 kids now, then middle school basketball finished today so we’ll get a handful from there, then another handful from the high school (basketball) team.

“The numbers are definitely growing. I think that there’s excitement. We put a post out on a group chat. The kids are excited about going back (into the WPIAL) and trying to compete. We have work to do but that’s where we want to be.”

The Red Raiders do know that they’ll be opening the 2026 season against Brownsville.

“We did schedule Brownsville so we’re going to have that Route 40 rivalry game for Week Zero,” Bukowski said. “As for the rest of the schedule, the WPIAL had us put down five teams for our exhibition games, so I was able to request five teams. There’s no guarantees. Depending on the size of our conference, we might get three or four exhibition games. We obviously are hoping to get a couple of those teams on our schedule.”

It’s not just the varsity team that will benefit from reuniting with the WPIAL, according to Bukowski.

“It’s going to be much better for us even from a JV standpoint,” Bukowski said. “A lot of these teams, when you travel to Deep Creek, Maryland to play a game, you usually don’t get a JV game the next morning. With the numbers we have coming up we have plenty of guys to play JV. Last year we only played four JV games so this will help the program from that standpoint as well.”

Kaufman expressed happiness with the board’s decision.

“We would like to thank Uniontown Area School District administration and the school board members for their continued support of the program,” Kaufman said.