As football coaches, Mars' Scott Heinauer and Pine-Richland's Clair Altemus saw it coming.

As athletic directors, they've planned accordingly.

Mars, which has played in Class AA for decades, finally was bumped up to Class AAA, joining the Greater Allegheny Conference, which also has nearby Knoch and Hampton.

Pine-Richland is moving up to Quad A, joining the Quad North and will face the likes of Butler, Seneca Valley, North Allegheny and North Hills.

Every two years, the enrollment figures are updated and teams are shifted to balance the classifications. All 12 schools in the Butler County area will be affected by changes this year.

n Summit Academy will join Freeport in the Allegheny Conference. The Knights, like Mars, played in the Tri-County North.

• The Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference in District 9 will have two new members: Class AAA Punxsutawney and Class AA Brookville. The conference, which is made up of schools ranging from Class A to AAA, now has 10 members.

• In District 10, Slippery Rock is dropping to Class AA while Grove City moves up to Class AAA.

Because of that, as well as having no mutual open dates, the two schools won't meet in the regular season for the first time since 1987.

Heinauer has been through this before. Two years ago, the Planets made a lateral move in Class AA, going from the Allegheny Conference to the Tri-County North.

They faced an entirely new group of teams, mostly in Lawrence County.

Now, they will be making the jump to Class AAA.

"I thought maybe we might get through this one more time," said Heinauer on staying in Class AA for another two years. "This will be a new thing for us. A lot of the teams we'll play will have a lot of people in the stands.

"Hopewell, Highlands, Knoch are close. The fans know one another. We've been playing these schools in track, soccer, basketball for the past few years.

"The kids are looking forward to it. They're looking at this as a challenge," Heinauer added.

One of the smaller Class AAA schools, Mars does not have as big a pool of athletes as some of the aforementioned teams.

"If there's one disadvantage, that's it," said Heinauer. "When teams have 60 to 70 kids, they can put fresher kids out."

In an ironic twist, Mars had only 42 players to start camp, the smallest Heinauer has ever had.

"It just worked out that way," said Heinauer. "It should be a good experience, though."

Summit Academy is coming off its first winning season in the school's history (5-4) although it does not benefit from many returning letterwinners. This year, the Knights have only two.

That's not a big concern for coach Steve Sherer.

"This year is not any different," said Sherer. "Our big challenge is working into the Allegheny Conference and seeing all the new teams.

"It's an adjustment but we've played Ford City, Apollo-Ridge (up from Class A this season), Burrell, Shady Side Academy, Freeport in the past,"Sherer added.

In the KSAC, Punxsutawney and Brookville bring two more solid programs into an already deep conference. That will not make things any easier for teams like Union and A-C Valley, which have struggled in recent seasons.

Still, first-year Union coach Jeremy Lipps doesn't look to throw in the towel just yet.

"A competition is a competition," said Lipps. "We've played Brookville here years ago and we'll approach it with the same outlook.

"It gives us a great challenge. Punxsutawney, we'll take them on just like any other team. They might have a bigger team, but we'll still line up, 11 on 11,"Lipps added.

For teams like Karns City, which has won the KSAC the past three years, the challenge is bigger, but coach Ed Conto doesn't like what it does to his team's schedule.

"I wanted more open dates," said Conto. "We like to go around and wanted to play a District 10 or a WPIAL team to get us ready and instead they brought in two District 9 teams.

"Punxsutawney may be more competitive down the road and we could play Brookville again in the playoffs. We usually see them every other year in the playoffs,"Conto added.

Conto said he and other coaches in the conference would like to work with the athletic directors and try to make two divisions so teams could schedule more nonconference games.

Conto said the Gremlins could have played Knoch and Grove City this season, but were unable due to the additions.

"It would've been good to have some local Butler County teams play each other," said Conto.

The loss of Slippery Rock and Grove City playing each other for at least the next two years will be tough on the schools, which are just eight miles apart.

"I felt in the past we've had a good, clean hard-fought game with Grove City," said Slippery Rock coach Clyde Conti last month. "Even though we haven't had much success against them lately, it's a shame we won't get to play them for this two-year interval."