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The End of High School Championships Mean Recuiting Season Is Here

It seems like the Lehigh Valley isn't even done celebrating Liberty's first-ever state high school football PIAA 4A title (with a parade and everything), in this football-crazy part of Pennsylvania. But as the bands put away their instruments and the crepe paper is put away, folks in the Valley are already looking over the high school seniors to see which athletes might be able to play Division I football in the Patriot League.

Liberty has an assistant coach with a Lehigh connection - Jim Tkatch, whose son Bo played for Lehigh before tragically taking his own life only a year ago. Firmly ensconced in the Liberty program physically and emotionally, you have to hope that Mr. Tkatch might be pointing some high-academic seniors to South Mountain to play football. Liberty has recently put players like FB Andres Morales (Rutgers) and the son of former NFLer Bo Orlando, WR Joey Orlando (New Hampshire) in Division I programs.

Liberty isn't the only place that the rumor mill is starting, with RB Lyle Marsh (Bethel Park HS, PA) already getting floated as a possible recruit with a 4.0 GPA for Lehigh. (Bethel Park was Liberty's victim in the PIAA 4A championship game, played at Hershey Park Stadium two weekends ago.)

Here's some players that are rumored to be approached by Lehigh at this early stage, all local players:

RB/DB Michael Yaeger (St. Joe's Prep, Philadelphia, PA)
The Skinny: 5'10 171 lb senior rushed for 1,151 yards, averaging more than 100 yards per game.

WR/OLB Rick Bailey (Penncrest HS, DelCo, PA)
The skinny: The 6'3, 200 lb receiver led the DelCo area with 678 receiving yards and averaged 26 yards per reception.

QB/SS Eric Gilbert (Academy Park HS, Delco, PA)
The skinny: Running and passing QB: 791 yards passing, 1,011 yards rushing.

TE Harold Spears (The Pennington School, NJ)
The skinny: The 6'5 senior may play football or basketball.

PK Scott Trench (River Hill HS, Clarksville, MD)
The skinny: Has only made one FG attempt in career, but has 28 touchbacks on kickoffs and is 57/61 career on extra points.

[UPDATE:] One more name popped up:

RB Quinton Cobb (Duluth HS, Duluth, GA)
The skinny: Two-way player has "interest" from Lehigh, Wofford and several other FCS schools. The article quotes "modest" numbers rushing (585 yards on 138 carries, 4 TDs).
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PK Scott Trench - Clarksville, MD
7:58 PM
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