Taking country roads: Fort Cherry standout Sieg signs with West Virginia
McDONALD – Fort Cherry football standout Matt Sieg kept his college commitment a secret to pretty much everyone before Wednesday.
His coach Tanner Garry didn’t even know.
Part of that was because Sieg said he didn’t know for sure where he was going until Tuesday night.
When Sieg unzipped his hoodie to reveal he was wearing a West Virginia T-shirt, it was a little bit of a surprise to some in the large crowd that gathered in the Fort Cherry High School library for his signing day celebration.
It has been a wild couple of months for the one-time Penn State commit. After James Franklin was fired as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in October, Sieg opened his recruitment and after a jam-packed process he found that the best fit for him was in Morgantown.
“Being close to home is really big for me,” Sieg said. “(West Virginia) is like 45 minutes from my house, so having the family support that I’ll have going there is big. Family is really important to me.
“It’s been a crazy couple of months. I thought I was going to be at Penn State with Coach Franklin. I was excited for that, but everything happens for a reason and I’m happy with where I’m going.”
Sieg made the announcement on the 247 sports National Signing Day livestream with his parents and Garry sitting beside him.
The other finalists were Pitt, Notre Dame, Penn State and Virginia Tech.
Part of what attracted Sieg to West Virginia is that the coaches have indicated to him that they will give him the opportunity to play on both sides of the ball. He’s rated as a four-star safety prospect by both on3.com and 24/7 sports.com, but he said he’ll also get a chance to take some snaps on offense in the spring.
“They said I’d get some time at wide receiver and running back,” Sieg said. “Wherever I can help and try to make plays.”
Sieg will graduate early and enroll at West Virginia in January, so his athletic career at Fort Cherry has concluded.
Prior to the announcement, Fort Cherry athletic director Tom Scarpone listed off all of Sieg’s accomplishments and at the end declared him the “G.O.A.T. of Fort Cherry athletics.”
Those accomplishments included leading the Rangers to two WPIAL football titles, three conference titles and an appearance in a state championship game. Sieg broke multiple school records as well as WPIAL records. He was the first quarterback in WPIAL history to pass for more than 4,000 yards and rush for over 7,000. He has the most total yardage in WPIAL history at 12,592 and the most touchdowns scored at 139.
In basketball he was part of teams that went to the WPIAL and PIAA semifinals. He was part of Fort Cherry’s 400-meter relay team that won a state title in 2023 and was an all-state performer in baseball that helped the Rangers win consecutive section titles.
Garry was there for all the football accolades Sieg gathered. That included seeing him break his school passing yards record.
The last couple months he’s been a resource for Sieg as he sorted through a truncated recruiting process.
“When you’re committed to somewhere as long as he was, you’re not looking anywhere else, so when that happened at Penn State his world got flipped upside down,” Garry said. “I just tried to listen to what he was telling me and help him based on that.”
With Franklin being hired at Virginia Tech, some speculated that it would be a landing spot for Sieg.
Franklin has had success flipping some of his former Penn State commits – 10 as of Wednesday – to Virginia Tech.
Sieg took a visit to Blacksburg last weekend, but ultimately decided West Virginia was the choice for him.
“It was really tough, because I had a lot of great relationships with coaches from all over,” Sieg said. “Talking with my family really helped me narrow it down to what we both wanted and what would be best for me.”
Several other local football players signed Wednesday.
Peters Township had a trio of signees: Reston Lehman (Pitt), Nolan DiLucia (Villanova) and Lucas Shanafelt (Stanford).
Trinity had two make their college choices official. Jonah Williamson signed with Harvard and Anthony Giorgi signed a service contract with the Naval Academy.
Canon-McMillan’s T.J. Sabatucci signed with Buffalo, Washington’s Tristan Reed with Miami (Ohio) and South Fayette’s Anthony Charles with Minnesota.