As a high school and college point guard, one of Shawn McCallister's strengths was his timing.

He knew when to shoot, when to pass and even when to commit a personal foul.

Turns out McCallister, the head boys' basketball coach at Steel Valley High School, also knows when to move. His Ironmen are moving into a new class and section thanks to the WPIAL's latest basketball realignment, and the timing might be just right for McCallister's team.

"I guess it's good timing to move into that section with Jeannette now that Terrelle [Pryor]is gone," McCallister said with a chuckle. "He's one of the elite players and we'll miss playing against him, so that's probably good for us."

Steel Valley will miss Pryor, who will be playing football at Ohio State next fall, but will not miss Jeannette. The move of the Ironmen from Class AAA Section 5 down to AA Section 4 means a new slate of opponents, including Pryor's Jayhawks along with East Allegheny, Greensburg Central Catholic, Shady Side Academy, South Allegheny and Wilkinsburg.

The Ironmen are vacating Section 5-AAA where last season they faced Belle Vernon, Thomas Jefferson, West Mifflin, Yough and Elizabeth Forward on their way to a playoff berth,.

"It's a big change for us and one of the things that's big about it is that we're not really familiar with any of the new schools we're going to be playing," McCallister said. "The things we will miss are that we had some pretty good rivalries with TJ and West Mifflin, but we'll still play in non-section.

"It'll be a pretty good challenge, though. Jeannette, Wilkinsburg and Greensburg Central all are pretty good, so it will be a tough section."

Thomas Jefferson also is on the move, perhaps a little farther than it wanted to go. The Jaguars still will play in Section 5-AAA, but only Belle Vernon, Elizabeth Forward and Yough remain as section holdovers. Steel Valley and West Mifflin are gone and replaced by McGuffey, Trinity and Waynesburg Central.

"That means more travel for us to get to McGufey, Waynesburg and Trinity," said Jaguars coach Dominic DeCicco. "It's disappointing to lose a rivalry like we had with West Mifflin and we don't know much about those schools [McGuffey, Waynesburg and Trinity], but we'll be fine.

"It's going to be a tough section, but we're going to play some tough non-conference games against Chartiers Valley and Greensburg Salem, and that will help us."

DeCicco said he expects his team to be able to adjust to its new opponents and said the responsibility to ensure that happens lies with the coaching staff. He is wary that long bus rides to unfamiliar gyms may lead his team to getting off to a slow start or two, and will work to ensure that does not happen.

"Our kids have been working hard and we should have a pretty good team," he said. "We're going to work as hard as we can. It's my job to get them ready to play against these [new] teams and to let them know how good they are.

"If we're prepared, we'll be fine. I may have to use a time-out 30 seconds into some of these games to make sure our guys are into the game. But we'll be ready. If we're not, that's on me."

West Mifflin's Lance Maha was disappointed in the realignment in that it left his team without any natural section rivals. The Titans played in Section 5-AAA last season and will be in Section 4-AAA this time around. Gone are natural section rivals TJ and Steel Valley.

This season, the Titans will be in an extremely tough section with Chartiers Valley, Moon Area, Keystone Oaks, South Park, West Allegheny and Montour.

"I'm not pleased with it," Maha said of the realignment. "Not that it's anyone's fault. The WPIAL does the best it can, we just happen to be one of those kind of dangling schools out there when it comes to travel, I guess. We're not going to play rivals like TJ, Steel Valley or Elizabeth Forward and those were always good games for the kids.

"But the flip side is we're going to see a lot of good teams. Chartiers Valley, Moon, [Keystone Oaks] and West Allegheny are all really good teams, so that will be challenging. There's no easy game in there."

Chartiers Valley coach Tim McConnell thinks the section will be awfully tough. Moon dropped down from AAAA to AAA and Maha's West Mifflin crew has won five section titles and made the playoffs nine years in a row.

"It's different, but I like it," McConnell said. "It's going to be a tougher section, I think, but I like that. It's the kind of thing that can get you prepared for the playoffs a little better.

"We've also got a lot of close games, in terms of distance and that should help more people get to the games. I'm looking forward to it."