RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Trinity's Sweat hitting the text ... messages?
Andrew Sweat appreciates all the attention but, every so often, he has to give his cell phone a rest.
There are days when Sweat, a junior at Trinity High School and one of the nation's most-heralded linebacker prospects, receives 35 to 40 text messages.
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
"It's crazy sometimes," Sweat said Tuesday. "Ohio State sends two to five a day. Some days they send as many as 10. Penn State sends me a couple. Pitt has three different coaches text me. Syracuse has five different coaches text me.
"It's astronomical. I'll get out of school and turn on my phone and there will be 30, 40 messages."
Sifting through his cell phone is just part of the day for Sweat, who also plays basketball and baseball while maintaining a 4.3 GPA.
"It's all kind of what you make of it," Sweat said. "A lot of times, these coaches call you at night so it's not that bad."
Sweat's phone may see more action after the release of the ESPN 150, which ranks the nation's top high school football players.
According to the list, the first-team all-stater is the No. 11 player in the country and the nation's highest rated linebacker.
Sweat found out the news while on a recruiting trip to Florida, the defending national champions.
"I was in Florida this past weekend when Coach (Urban) Meyer congratulated me on being the number-one linebacker in the country," Sweat said. "At first, I thought he was like, 'You're our number-one linebacker.' When he told me about the ranking, I was like, 'Whoa. That's pretty cool.' There are a lot of kids playing high school football."
Few have the combination of power, speed and explosiveness of Sweat (6-2, 225). Combine that with a natural ability to play linebacker and it's easy to see why schools from Southern California to Florida are talking to him.
Sweat, whose father Gary played at Syracuse after two years of varsity football at Avella, estimates he has 28 scholarship offers and his share of interesting recruiting stories.
"I'm at Ohio State and I'm sitting at a table with Chris Speilman, A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and a few other guys and they're trying to get me to go to their school," Sweat said. "I idolize these guys and I'm sitting there with them."
He lists his top five choices as Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame and Pitt.
"I'll try to make my decision in June, July or August," Sweat said. "I'll make it whenever I feel comfortable with my decision."
Section overload
The majority of WPIAL baseball and softball teams will be getting very familiar with section opponents as most are scheduled to play each section opponent three times.
As always, there are positive and negatives to the situation.
"I think our section is going to be very strong," Chartiers-Houston softball coach Tricia Alderson said. "I don't see a problem with it but we requested to play bigger schools that are strong."
With only 20 games schedule for the regular season, that permits just five non-section games. The Canon-McMillan baseball team, off to a 5-0 start, has already finished its non-section schedule.
"For teams good enough to make the (PIAA) playoffs, it could hurt playing the same teams all the time," Waynesburg softball coach Lou Giachetti said. "One of my suggestions is to bump up the amount of games, even if it's 22 games."
Arm trouble
When Peters Township junior Jordan Jankowski isn't pitching, he starts at catcher for the Indians. And coach Joe Maize believes Jankowski measures up defensively with the likes of Kevin McGuire, Josh Pisarcik and Mark Meucci.
The trouble is Jankowski throws back to the pitcher like he's pitching.
"He has to take it easy on his throwing arm," Maize said. "He's throwing 90 miles per hour back to the pitcher. He's going to carry on our tradition of great catchers but he's got to throw it back to the pitcher a little slower."
