JotCast | Mike White's high school sports chat: 08.30.22

Mike White's high school sports chat: 08.30.22

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Mike White

11:07

What's up, everyone? Week 1 in football is in the books. This week has a lot of good games. Plenty to talk about. Let's get started.

LeboKid

11:07

Good morning, Mike. Has Amy Scheuneman's departure at the WPIAL delayed discussions relating to some public schools that no longer want to play Catholic/private/charter schools during the regular season? And doesn't the WPIAL operate on two-year cycle ('22-'24) for scheduling purposes? Doubtful that Bob Lombardi would ever take this proposal seriously anyway. Thanks for any updates, Mike.

Mike White

11:11

It has nothing to do with Amy's departure. There is still a group of schools that wants something done. The WPIAL basketball committee was supposed to be the one that would examine this and suggest some possibilities to maybe separate some of the public and privates in the new alignment. But that didn't occur. Committee members say there wasn't enough time to truly examine this and come up with a plan. So nothing happened. I know one board member who was definitely upset that nothing was proposed for basketball. It's what I've said all along. People will call for change, even for just the regular season. But when it comes time to do it, people in charge won't pull the trigger. It's almost as if they're afraid.

11:12

So I don't know if anything will ever happen with it. Probably not. There will be complaints every year. Some in charge will say they will examine it. And then probably nothing will happen.

Anon

11:12

Any chance of you doing an article on the number of D1 commits coming out of here for girls soccer? There’s a lot of them in the 2023 and 2024 class

Mike White

11:17

Have no idea how many. There are always numerous Div. 1 soccer players from this area. But let me stop you before you go down the road comparing number of Div. 1 soccer players, or baseball players or lacrosse player to maybe the number of Div. 1 basketball players, or football players. It's comparing apples and oranges. There aren't many full scholarships in those sports. That's a major difference. Div. 1 women's soccer teams have 14 scholarships to give, I think. And just look at the Pitt women's roster. They have 33 players for 14 scholarships. Men's soccer has nine scholarships. So it's really not a fair comparison.

Catholic Schools Forever!

11:18

It seems a little naive to me to believe Bishop Canevin's coach when he didn't think he was breaking any rules by letting an inelgible player play in a scrimmage. The player knew it was wrong too but wanted highlights to put up on his Twitter feed. Coach Johnson seems like he is really getting off the hook with BC's self imposed 1 game suspension. Will the WPIAL rule further on this? It seems like the Bishop Canevin athletic department may be worthy of a year of probation due to lack of control. Your thoughts?

Mike White

11:20

I don't know coach's thoughts. I can't get in his head. One source told me the kid hardly played in the scrimmage. I saw one play on his Twitter account. Hardly a highlight tape. Maybe the coach didn't know he wasn't allowed to play. Because he is allowed to practice. As for Canevin and the WPIAL, the WPIAL boss said the board will examine the case and decide if the one-game penalty was appropriate.

Catholic Schools Forever!

11:20

Any word if Quaker Valley (the team that was supposed to play Mohawk this week) found a replacement game. It appears that this will be a common problem for all of the Warrior's opponents this year.

Mike White

11:20

Don't know. Union was able to get a game last week after Mohawk canceled.

Lion Pride

11:22

Hearing South Fayette may have another stud quartback on the rise. Saw they had a Freshman (Drew Welhorsky) rip apart Char Valley the other night. Know anything about him? Will be anxious to see if the stats continue vs. stiffer competition.

Mike White

11:22

I don't know anything about him. Never saw him, but should we be surprised if South Fayette has another QB who throws for a ton of yards? It happens almost every year there. It's the Joe Rossi way.

Lion Pride

11:22

It appears that several of the Middletown football players are now transferring to other schools now that their football season has been cancelled due to the hazing the program. There is no way the PIAA is going to rule them eligible is there?

Mike White

11:23

They will not necessarily be eligible, according to PIAA brass. PIAA will have to make a ruling. Stay tuned on this one.

D9 Dave

11:24

Isn’t it absurd that the PA state football championship is in mid December especially with no domed stadium to use? What recommendations would you have for shortening the high school football calendar?

Mike White

11:26

Well it isn't exactly in mid-December. It's Dec. 8-9 this year. I would have no problem if it was first weekend in December. Ohio usually finishes the week before Pa. Ohio starts the week before Pa., though. Why can't we go to that?

Rowdy

11:26

Mike, I know it is football season, but what are your thoughts on the recent 5-star ratings for two basketball players in the area? And this doesn't even include Parham who is very good. Is basketball starting to rebound (pun intended) a little in the area in terms of producing talent who can play D1? Chances that this talent stays home with Pitt or Duquesne?

Mike White

11:32

You're talking about Meleek Thomas of Lincoln Park and Alier Maluk of Imani Christian. Meleek is about a 6-3 guard and Maluk about a 6-10 forward. Both are rated in sophomore class. Both obviously are talented and it's great to see Western Pa. basketball players get attention. They both have major-college offers. They still have things to work on and improve. But Maluk is 6-10 with some skill. He needs a lot more muscle but gotta like his potential. Meleek has a number of talents. He could be in junior class. He repeated 8th grade, but he was a young 8th grader. Good for those two and good for this area, but those rankings can change by the time they're seniors. And Parham is really good, too. Actually surprised he is not rated higher. He now has offers from likes of Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland (last night), Penn State, Xavier, Pitt, Duquesne and others. And I know a few other big ones are now starting to show interest, too.

Pants

11:32

Favorite place or two to watch a WPIAL HS Game.

Mike White

11:33

Some good ones. Martorelli Stadium at North Hills is still my favorite. Sits down in that valley. Almost a misty fog in the air at games. I really like Belle Vernon also.

Pants

11:33

In HS football, do you want more talent or better coaching?

Mike White

11:33

Both.

Pants

11:33

Favorite Football uniforms in WPIAL?

Mike White

11:34

No uniforms really wow me. I think helmets are more of the thing.

Rowdy

11:34

Mike I notice some twitter sites are already starting to rank freshman (class of 26) players in the area. Don't you think this is a little too early? Everyone though Brad Birch was the next big thing as a freshman and now it doesn't seem like he will go P5 at the next level.

Mike White

11:38

There's no way anybody knows all the freshmen in WPIAL who will have an impact. So yes, I think it is a little silly to rank the best freshmen when you don't know all of them. Let's see at the end of the season who they are. As for Birch, a lot of his rating came after he got that offer from Oregon. And that came because of Oregon OC Joe Moorhead, who was a Pittsburgh guy. This happens all the time. When one big school offers, people think "this kid must be really good," and have never seen him play. All I will say is that Birch is a junior and has now Power Five offers. I'm not cutting him down. He's a nice QB. Very good QB for Gateway. But in retrospect, that Oregon offer might have put more pressure on him than he needed. Do I think he's a Power Five QB? Again, I'm not saying he's not good. He is. But right now, I don't see him as a Power Five QB. But what do I know? That could change.

Coach O

11:38

Mike, do the mostly one sided losses to out of state teams this past weekend by WPIAL teams reflect on the current state of WPIAL football or moreso that they just played historically powerhouse programs and/or schools with larger enrollments?

Mike White

11:43

I had a note on this in my Monday notebook. My thing with these games is they always seem to be a year or two late with WPIAL teams. TJ got blown out by Millville, N.J. Well I would've liked to have seen 2019 TJ team play in this game. Or even this year's Aliquippa team. Pine-Richland got blown out by IMG a couple years ago. I would've liked to have seen Pine-Richland team a year earlier with Phil Jurkovec. I'm not saying WPIAL is great, but so many times, a WPIAL team is in an event a year or two too late. I remember going to see Pine-Richland play St. Ed's of Ohio when Jurkovec was a junior. It was a close game. That said something. But that was a top Pine-Richland team. This year's Pine-Richland team got blown out by Pickerington North Ohio. This is not a really good Pine-Richland team. I'm not here to say Western Pa. football is great. I think Ohio is definitely better than Pa. overall. I'm just saying I'd like to see our best Pa. teams in this event.

11:44

More on previous point. Look at St. Joe's of Philly. They were ahead of St. Thomas Aquinas Fla. in second half Saturday. St. Thomas has 10 seniors headed to FBS schools.

Lion Pride

11:44

Know its not HS....but...who you got Thursday night, Pitt or WVU?

Mike White

11:44

Definitely for Pitt.

Coach O

11:44

I know it’s early so for rankings you can’t use eye test to measure up teams yet with one another but I think Rochester, Laurel, and SS Beaver are all going to show up in 1A rankings at some point. Thoughts?

Mike White

11:45

Very well could. You know Rochester is always good. And Laurel intrigues me. Laurel was good last year and moved down.

Rowdy

11:46

It cracks me up everyone whining here about supposed advantages Catholic schools have. Central doesn't have a home field or a community following (or girls, lol). Doesn't that mitigate some of the supposed "geographic advantages of private schools? And please stop with the myth of public schools not recruiting. How does every offspring of a Steeler player or coach end up at NA? How did Ish end up at North Hills awhile back?

Mike White

11:49

Please. Have you ever heard a kid not go to Central Catholic and say, "I don't want to go there because they don't have a home field." No doubt some public schools recruit. Some have been accused of it. But don't sit here and tell me Central doesn't have an advantage when they can take kids from all these school districts and the kids don't have to move. I'm not blaming Central. They're not breaking rules. I like their coaches there. Terry Totten is a great guy. But don't sit here and say they are at a disadvantage. You should see their roster and how many school districts their kids come from. But that's just the way it is.

Wowzer

11:49

Who is the most underrated player in the WPIAL ?

Mike White

11:50

Central Valley running back Mason DIxon. He should be on the line, but he's a great North-South runner.

Woooo hoooo. I'll be here all week.

Panic on Thoms Run Rd

11:50

Char Valley got crushed last week. Is it gonna be a long season on Thoms Run Rd ?

Mike White

11:51