Compiled by Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
1. Texting Terrelle: Like LeBron James before him, Terrelle Pryor of Jeanette (Pa.) can’t sneeze without someone reporting his hankie of choice. Yes, the uncommitted MaxPreps’ 2007 football Player of the Year made news this week because he might not make news on signing day. He told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that it’s a 50-50 chance he’ll push back his much-anticipated decision on his college of choice. The Vince Young-type quarterback was going to make his announcement live on ESPN Wednesday, the first day of the National Letter of Intent signing period, which ends on April 1 for football players. Pryor reportedly wants to make a last-minute trip to Oregon which will push back his decision. He also told Post-Gazette’s Mike White that he’s still considering Penn State. The Associated Press recently reported that LSU, Ohio State and Michigan are his other top choices. What made the report amazing is that Pryor gave AP the information via a text message during a basketball game. Where have you gone Red Smith? Anyway, in more concrete news reported by our own Dave Krider and to confirm how special Pryor is, he scored his 2,000th career point as Jeanette defeated Greensburg Central 69-43 last week.
2. Wrestling Rebound in Texas: Less than three years after it was involved in a highly-publicized hazing incident, the Flower Mound (Texas) wrestling team is again flourishing on the mat. In a riveting story by Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News, current wrestlers re-live the incident and aftermath of an incident that led to 18 arrests and the dismissal of its coach. Flower Mound, which went from state power to also-ran, is now 21-7 and goes for its second straight district title on Saturday.
3. Bowl Expansion: California was the last state in the union to organize some form of a state football championship with its BCS-like three Bowl Game series. Last week, the state’s governing body the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) voted to expand the bowl games to five annually. The games are still enrollment based and still pit Section champions from the North versus South. There is a proposal, however, to create an Open Division that would simply pit the two best teams, one each from the South and North. In that case, the other four divisions would be enrollment based. Here’s a terrific reporting job by one of the country’s top prep writers Steve Brand of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
4. Sugar Sweet: Milwaukee Lutheran senior guard Andrew Ferry doesn’t let diabetes get in the way of his sweet game. The Milwaukee Lutheran senior guard is one of the most improved players in Wisconsin, averaging 18.2 points per game. Not only has his game grown, but he’s 10 inches taller than he was as a freshman. Nice read from Anthony Witrado of the Milwaukee Sentinel.
5. Cream of the Crop. Mike Lefkow of the The Contra Costa Times, a large suburban paper in the San Francisco Bay Area, puts out annually one of the most impressive high school packages in the country. For 25 years, it has highlighted the top 20 football players in the East Bay, which is largely on the map because of De La Salle. Monte Vista (Danville) multi-star quarterback Drew McAllister, who will switch positions to strong safety next year at USC, was picked the No. 1 player. The package also tracks all the players from over the years, looks ahead from this year’s junior crop and lists the schools with the most Cream of the Crop members. Though De La Salle does lead the lists of prospects with 53, surprising to most is that Skyline (Oakland) is right there with the Spartans with 51 top players. A splendid and thorough piece of journalism this and every year.
National High 5 is a twice weekly MaxPreps feature, highlighting top national high school news, game stories or human interest pieces from around the web. If we miss something, please e-mail us at sspiewak@maxpreps.com and/or mstephens@maxpreps.com.
