WPIAL football playoffs compel communities to adjust Halloween parade, trick-or-treat plans

Costumes and candy are about to collide with high school football playoffs Friday, and some communities either playing host or traveling to games have tweaked traditional holiday schedules in response.

Halloween last fell on a Friday in 2014, and it won’t do so again until 2031.

In Harrison, township officials have moved trick-or-treating to Saturday out of an abundance of caution related to the Highlands home playoff game taking place on Halloween night.

“It wasn’t really a football-versus-trick-or-treating decision for us,” township manager Amy Rockwell said. “It was primarily looking at a children’s event taking place at night that utilizes public streets. And with a home playoff game, we anticipate 800 to 1,000 cars coming into the community.”

For Highlands High School home games, those cars are quite literally coming into residential neighborhoods, where the football stadium is.

“That’s one of the things I love about our stadium, but it also means people are coming into town using their GPS and in many cases parking on the street,” Rockwell said. “We don’t have a dedicated parking lot, and ATI is gracious enough to let us use their lot, but there will be a lot of street parking.”

By moving trick-or-treating to Saturday, Rockwell said, families will be able to enjoy the event without the additional challenge of game traffic.

Leechburg officials opted to keep trick-or-treating on Friday despite the Blue Devils hosting Neshannock.

“Our parade is Thursday, and with how popular it is, we didn’t want to also do trick-or-treating then,” Mayor Doreen Smeal said. “We also normally have our firemen patrol the streets during trick-or-treating, and they have their gun bash on Saturday, so we couldn’t move it ahead.”

In addition to planning for an increased security presence throughout town, Smeal said borough officials also reached out to Neshannock.

“We wanted to let them know we’re having trick-or-treating, so they can let folks know to be extra careful when they’re driving around town,” she said.

In Scottdale, borough Manager Stacey Coffman said officials planned for Halloween with one eye on the Southmoreland football team.

“We were kind of hoping — and expecting — the team to make the playoffs, and we wanted to make sure the cheerleaders and the high school band were able to be part of the (Halloween) parade,” Coffman said.

Scottdale will host a parade and trick-or-treating starting at 6 p.m. Saturday.

In Shaler and Etna, officials moved trick-or-treating up an hour Friday, to 5 p.m., so residents have time to get to Shaler Area football team’s home playoff game against Kiski Area, which starts at 7 p.m.

“We understand that some residents might not be home from work by 5 p.m. but are hoping this gives everyone who wants to attend the football game enough time to trick-or-treat first and then go cheer on the Titans,” Shaler said in its notice.