PA H.S Playoffs ..... Championship Games Belle Vernon over Northwestern Lehigh 38-7 Q.Martin with 92 yard run....

[GregInPitt]

Just watched the BV game I recorded. Martin is quite an athlete but in my less than expert opinion he does not ook like the next great PSU RB. Big, strong and fast, but not real nifty in the one on one battles in that I didn't seem him make one defender miss. For BV he just runs past people when he has any room at all. He made a couple nice plays in the secondary, tipping passes away that would have been caught. One that would have been a TD where he came across the field to make the play. He lines up as a CB mostly on defense. Alternates between RB and WR on offense.

BV has some other real nice players that seem to have decent size. Particularly in the secondary. Wonder if anyone else from this teams ends up in D1.

The WPIAl seems to be doing pretty well. Nice blowout wins against real community teams, and blowout losses against all star teams.

Fast start leads Belle Vernon to 2nd straight state championship | Trib HSSN

MECHANISBURG — There was no suspense in this year’s PIAA Class 3A championship.

tribhssn.triblive.com

 

[royboy]

Thanks for your comments on Belle Vernon and Quinton Martin.

Greg, what do you think of giving Martin a shot at WR?

 

[voltz99]

Sieg is a fantastic athlete, and as of now I would say he’s a Penn State lock. His dad grew up in State College and the kid loves it up here. As for his team though, they were overmatched, and the best player on the field was the other quarterback. I would expect that he will get every opportunity to play right away at the Naval Academy.

Will he be a QB in college?

 

[GregInPitt]

Will he be a QB in college?

Looks like a CB or Safety in college.

 

[GregInPitt]

Thanks for your comments on Belle Vernon and Quinton Martin.

Greg, what do you think of giving Martin a shot at WR?

He catches the ball nice and has very good speed. But the same lack of "moves", niftyness, ability to separate with moves, would seem to show up as a WR as well. He plays WR in H.S. and does well due to his size/physicaity, speed and decent hands.

From the couple of his games I've seen he looks more like a big, fast Safety, although I didn't see him light anyone up and BV plays him at CB as he has the speed to eliminate most high school WR's.

Will be interesting to see where he begins his career at PSU. Probably RB. I just don't see the "moves". More of a big strong tailback that breaks some tackles, gets some yards after contact, and has the speed to get some yards. He has a big frame and would seem to be able to be able to play at a size 10-15 lbs bigger than what we've seen from the recent PSU RB's.

Edit: Got a glimpse of Sacca in the 6A game and he looks like a big framed future PSU LB!! Wish Diaz was staying to close the deal with him.......

Rojas was also a dynamic RB in high school. Maybe the PSU S&C program makes a LB out of Martin. Martin seems bigger right now than Rojas was when he showed up at PSU. Should be interesting.

 

[OaktonDave]

Forgot let me add Northern Virginia too. Basically every state that I’ve ever coached in, or have a friend who coaches there tells me the same exact thing.

Private schools aren't part of VHSL, so the impact of recruiting is significantly different in VA than in PA.

For football, you don't hear much about the private schools, and while there are some good private school programs, the best programs are public schools. There's no much reason to go to a NOVA private school if you're primary sport is football. On the other hand, the private schools are strongest is basketball, and I'm sure that there's a lot of recruiting. While a coach many be frustrated about losing a player to one of the private schools, at least they won't face them down the road.

Interestingly, you see a lot of recruiting with the public schools, most notably in secondary sports. I'm most familiar with baseball where two of the strongest programs in NOVA and the state are or were lead by guys who ran large travel programs. (One stepped down at the end of last season.) The rosters of the teams had several kids who were prominent in their coaches' travel programs and, by means of some rules that allowed students to transfer without moving into the boundaries of the school, transferred to play for their travel coach.

 

[The Spin Meister]

My memory is a bit clouded about this but there were lawsuits years ago about private schools and Catholic schools competing alongside of public schools. The PIAA, which is not a division of state government, was looking for some plan to be more fair but couldn’t discriminate against religious schools.

So they came up with the plan that if you consistently win championships you must move up in classification. It is far from perfect but is better then the status quo of ten years ago. If anyone has a better plan that would survive legal challenges I am sure they would be interested.

 

[bison13]

Private schools aren't part of VHSL, so the impact of recruiting is significantly different in VA than in PA.

For football, you don't hear much about the private schools, and while there are some good private school programs, the best programs are public schools. There's no much reason to go to a NOVA private school if you're primary sport is football. On the other hand, the private schools are strongest is basketball, and I'm sure that there's a lot of recruiting. While a coach many be frustrated about losing a player to one of the private schools, at least they won't face them down the road.

Interestingly, you see a lot of recruiting with the public schools, most notably in secondary sports. I'm most familiar with baseball where two of the strongest programs in NOVA and the state are or were lead by guys who ran large travel programs. (One stepped down at the end of last season.) The rosters of the teams had several kids who were prominent in their coaches' travel programs and, by means of some rules that allowed students to transfer without moving into the boundaries of the school, transferred to play for their travel coach.

One of my best friends coached in Alexandria at TC Williams. They lose tons of kids in every sport. They might not all be in northern Virginia private schools but you can bet that the WCAC recruits very heavily in northern Virginia.

 

[OaktonDave]

One of my best friends coached in Alexandria at TC Williams. They lose tons of kids in every sport. They might not all be in northern Virginia private schools but you can bet that the WCAC recruits very heavily in northern Virginia.

TC Williams, now Alexandria City, has a lot of challenges and many students want to get out. At one point, they couldn't play night football games because of problems that occurred whenever they tried. They used to field field decent to good football teams, but the support for the sports programs, and, frankly, the quality of coaching, fell off a cliff a decade or more ago. I saw TC play several times in the early/mid 90's when Annandale was a power, and to see them in recent years is pretty sad - limited numbers, very little support, and poor coaching. I also knew some kids who attended the school through my son's travel baseball, and, and based on what they talked about, they would jump at the chance to leave. I have no doubt that private schools successfully recruited there and similar schools; Lewis High School, for example, has the same challenges, and Justice High School has been poor since I moved into the area 36 years ago. I can say that once you get outside the beltway into areas like Springfield, Burke, Fairfax, and the Centreville/Chantilly area, the private schools are only a significant factor in basketball.

 

[bison13]

TC Williams, now Alexandria City, has a lot of challenges and many students want to get out. At one point, they couldn't play night football games because of problems that occurred whenever they tried. They used to field field decent to good football teams, but the support for the sports programs, and, frankly, the quality of coaching, fell off a cliff a decade or more ago. I saw TC play several times in the early/mid 90's when Annandale was a power, and to see them in recent years is pretty sad - limited numbers, very little support, and poor coaching. I also knew some kids who attended the school through my son's travel baseball, and, and based on what they talked about, they would jump at the chance to leave. I have no doubt that private schools successfully recruited there and similar schools; Lewis High School, for example, has the same challenges, and Justice High School has been poor since I moved into the area 36 years ago. I can say that once you get outside the beltway into areas like Springfield, Burke, Fairfax, and the Centreville/Chantilly area, the private schools are only a significant factor in basketball.

What private schools even exist that far out? I know that my friend that was at TC Williams was asked to start coaching at Bishop Ireton hoping that he could bring a couple of the lineman with him, but he ultimately moved to Florida to one of the bigger schools down there, plantation, I think, in 2018.

I know DeMatha, Gonzaga, McNamara, and St. John’s all have assistant coaches that watch youth games in northern Virginia. Overall high school Sports are generally pretty good in northern Virginia, but the WCAC does still take some.

 

[OaktonDave]

What private schools even exist that far out? I know that my friend that was at TC Williams was asked to start coaching at Bishop Ireton hoping that he could bring a couple of the lineman with him, but he ultimately moved to Florida to one of the bigger schools down there, plantation, I think, in 2018.

I know DeMatha, Gonzaga, McNamara, and St. John’s all have assistant coaches that watch youth games in northern Virginia. Overall high school Sports are generally pretty good in northern Virginia, but the WCAC does still take some.

Paul VI was in Fairfax, but moved further west to the Chantilly. Flint Hill is in Oakton. They recruit for basketball, but aren't going to attract better talent for football. The private schools in Arlington and Alexandria are close enough to attract football players from Fairfax County, but programs at places like Ireton, Episcopal, and Bishop O'Connell, like Paul VI and Flint Hill, aren't on the same level as many of the better public programs in the county. WT Woodson is a perennial doormat, but when kids transfer for football, they go to Fairfax, Lake Braddock, or Robinson, not the private schools. (Transferring to nearby public schools in the county is a piece of cake, and you don't have to move if you can write a good justification for the transfer, something coaches will be happy to help you through. One of the high schools offers a language that few, if any, of the schools offered. It's remarkable how many students who were standouts at a particular sport also wanted very badly to study that language...) There aren't many public school basketball powers in the area, so the private schools who have excellent programs have something to offer that the public schools don't.