Finishing the football season in the WPIAL playoffs has been commonplace for Mars and Knoch in recent years.

If they want to continue that trend, they better bring their “A” game every week — because they won't be alone.

Their new nine-team Section 1-4A features six teams that reached the WPIAL playoffs last year and eight teams that have been to postseason play within the past two years. Only four teams out of that group will get there in 2016.

“It's crazy. All of these teams are good,” Mars coach Scott Heinauer. “There's going to be some good teams left out in the end.

“It is what it is. You have to welcome the challenge and get ready to go to work. There won't be any walks in the park here ... None.”

Ambridge, Highlands, Mars, Montour, New Castle and South Fayette all went to the playoffs last year. South Fayette has lost one game in the past three years in Class AA. Mars reached the WPIAL semifinals last year in Triple-A. Highlands is coming off a seven-win season.

Knoch and Indiana reached the playoffs in 2014. Blackhawk, which last had a winning season in 2012, is the only program in the section that has struggled of late.

Knoch coach Mike King said his program is accustomed to stellar competition.

“I always felt our Greater Allegheny Conference was like that,” King said. “Sure, this looks like a stacked section, but we'll be playing some of the best teams in the WPIAL and I like that.

“I'd rather have it that way than have people say the other section is stronger than yours.”

King did admit that qualifying for the playoffs out of this section “will be a tremendous accomplishment.”

New Castle coach Joe Cowart understands that part of it.

“When they first announced the move to six classes, my first reaction was we will probably avoid Central Valley and West Allegheny, finally,” Cowart said. “So our reward for that is, now we get Mars, Highlands, South Fayette ... This is just a glut of top programs.

“I look at the other section and it doesn't seem this difficult.”

Section 2-4A features Albert Gallatin, Belle Vernon, Greensburg Salem, Laurel Highlands, Ringgold, Thomas Jefferson, Trinity, Uniontown and West Mifflin.

“I'm a little surprised they didn't keep Greensburg Salem with us and keep South Fayette with the southern teams,” Heinauer admitted. “I guess they (WPIAL committee) didn't see it that way.”

Highlands coach Sam Albert doesn't understand why they didn't.

“We have to drive past Thomas Jefferson to get to South Fayette,” Albert said. “It doesn't make much sense to me.

“When I coached at Butler in the Quad North, North Allegheny was winning state championships, North Hills had LaVar Arrington, Seneca Valley was loaded ... But from top to bottom, this is the best section I've ever seen.

“We're going to beat each other up all year. Some teams in the other section may be able to rest guys in the second half of games ... That can make a big difference come playoff time,” Albert added.

South Fayette coach Joe Rossi embraces the challenge of facing powerful programs he's unfamiliar with.

“We used to know everybody on our schedule, but not anymore,” he said. “I think it's going to be fun. We'll have some long road trips, but we've dealt with those before.

“But, yeah, just getting to the playoffs will be a task.”

King is looking forward to taking on South Fayette.

“That's such a great program and now they're on our schedule. That's exciting to me,” he said.

“What I don't like about the new set-up is we used to take 16 teams to the playoffs and now we're only taking eight. We've had good teams in our league miss the playoffs before. Now it's going to be even harder to get in this year.”

Albert is upset that his team is losing numerous rivalry games.

“We're going to be playing Montour and they don't even know where Highlands is,” he said. “You can't have a rivalry if the other school doesn't even know who you are.

“Our schedule loses Burrell, Valley, Freeport, Deer Lakes, Apollo-Ridge ... We could practically walk to those places. Those games were sellouts, great for the communities. Now they're gone.”

And a challenging race for postseason play is here.

“Our work is cut out for us just trying to be in one of those four (playoff) spots at the end,” Cowart said.

Heinauer agreed.

“It's going to be game on, each and every week,” he said. “This might be the toughest section out there. You just have to embrace it, grind it out. What else can you do?”