Aliquippa is the owner of the best asterisk in sports.

On the WPIAL alignment sheet for high school sports, the mark denotes schools that voluntarily play up a classification.

For this current enrollment cycle, which lasts two years, the Quips are the only school that chooses to play up in football.

Aliquippa, which is the district’s 25th smallest school enrollment-wise, is nearly 40 boys below the cut-off line for Class AA.

There are 156 schools in the WPIAL. The Quips choose to take on bigger foes.

As usual, its enrollment hasn’t impacted its standing in the Midwestern Conference.

With a 49-14 win over Summit Academy last week, the Quips moved to 4-0 on the season.

Aliquippa has outscored its opponents 189-48 this season.

Knights coach Steve Sherer knew Summit Academy would have a tough time with the Quips.

“Aliquippa is a legend,” Sherer said before the season. “This will be a good lesson. It will be a good lesson for our kids to say we competed against of the best teams in Western Pennsylvania.”

The Quips’ legendary status comes from being a consistent pipeline for college and professional football talent.

Dravon Henry is contributing at cornerback for West Virginia this season.

Mike Ditka, Jonathan Baldwin, Darrelle Revis, Sean Gilbert and Ty Law all ended up in the NFL.

It’s amazing the Quips can keep that consistency up.

Population-wise, Aliquippa has fallen from its peak of 27,116 in 1930 to 9,351 in 2012.

The Quips have a boys enrollment of 138 in grades 9 through 11.

Avonworth, the biggest Class A football school in the WPIAL, has a male enrollment of 174.

That’s one below the cut-off for Class AA.

“They may not have a lot of students body-wise,” Freeport coach John Gaillot said. “But the ones they have are high caliber. When you say Aliquippa, you think of superior athletes.”

Teams are within their right to play where they are aligned.

Jeannette, which had its school board originally vote to stay up in AA, reneged and dropped to A this year.

Sustained excellence doesn’t mean programs like Clairton, which won four straight Class A state titles from 2009 to 20012, need to jump up to Class AA.

Dominance at any level shouldn’t be punished.

When a small, public school decides to move up a classification, it’s worthy of some notice.

In an era where many schools that used to voluntarily move up drop down to get more wins, Aliquippa continues to play up and strike fear into opponents.

That’s the kind of asterisk every school should strive for.

Josh Rizzo is a sports writer for the Butler Eagle.