Alumni connection

[Sundayamqb]

I saw this posted today on former Lehigh star Bryant Appling's successful high school coaching career in Buford, Ga.
https://alumni.lehigh.edu/news-blog/coaching-call

It reminded me of last night, when Buford alum Ashton Daniels led Stanford to an amazing comeback over Coach Prime's Colorado team. Daniels, a junior QB, was 27 of 45 for 396 yards and a four TDs.

Lehigh has a Buford alum on its roster, Dajuan Fields, a junior WR.

The Stanford website said of Daniels, at 6-2, 215:

Ranked as the No. 34 pocket passer quarterback in his class by ESPN, and at quarterback is ranked No. 49 by PrepStar, No. 56 by 247Sports and No. 63 by On3

Led Buford HS to three state titles in his career

Threw the game-winning touchdown pass to lead Buford to its third-consecutive state title as a senior.

One would hope Buford would be a good pipeline for the Mountain Hawks ...

[Former LU Coach]

Why should Buford be a pipeline? App has been at Buford for years. Buford is prob damn close to Patriot League schools interns of coaching Salary. Why would Bryan risk a 200k year job to steer kids to Lehigh? Fact of the matter is HS have a responsibility to do what is best for their kids not where they went to school. Imagine being an alum and thinking someone should not do what’s right for 17/18 year old kids so he can feed the school he went to. Lehigh Alums = The Problem

[HFO]

Why should Buford be a pipeline? App has been at Buford for years. Buford is prob damn close to Patriot League schools interns of coaching Salary. Why would Bryan risk a 200k year job to steer kids to Lehigh? Fact of the matter is HS have a responsibility to do what is best for their kids not where they went to school. Imagine being an alum and thinking someone should not do what’s right for 17/18 year old kids so he can feed the school he went to. Lehigh Alums = The Problem

You and I know that coaches do their best for their high school players who express an interest on playing at the next level wherever that might be. A coach will a good network can at least get the recruiting coordinator to look at a prospect whether a 5 start or just a kid wanting to walk on at a DIII Program. Yes...Buford, GA or Buford, SC will not be pipeline schools to Lehigh. However, a Blair Academy or a Bethlehem Catholic or St. Joseph's Prep or LaSalle College High or Malvern Prep or Phillipsburg, PA can be reliable places to get 3-6 recruits per year whether targeted or preferred walkons.

Getting student athletes into Lehigh has become tougher and tougher since Likins took Lehigh into the Patriot League. Likins couldn't even get his own son into Lehigh for wrestling. He went to Pitt instead. We press on this within wrestling community to have President change policy on special abilities admissions with some minimum SAT level like 1100 for premier student-athletes. If Lehigh expects to build a competitive football team where every athlete has 1350 SAT is not ever going to happen. It has a fighting change at 1100 with university setting the number of male/female athletes fairly allocated across sports.

[ngineer]

Academic standards are set by the Patriot League, not the individual school.

[lfnadmin]

Buford, GA or Buford, SC will not be pipeline schools to Lehigh. However, a Blair Academy or a Bethlehem Catholic or St. Joseph's Prep or LaSalle College High or Malvern Prep or Phillipsburg, PA can be reliable places to get 3-6 recruits per year whether targeted or preferred walkons.

There are no such things as "pipeline schools" to Lehigh or any other Patriot League school due to academic requirements. Look at any Ivy League or Patriot League roster. While yes, you'll see a lot of the prep schools like Exeter, The Hun school, Bosco Prep, Milton, etc. dotted in there, you'll rarely see more than two of them at a time on a roster, and generally all the Ivy and PL schools are mining in the same area. Furthermore, high-academic kids also don't have to choose an Ivy or PL school if they can run a 4.2 40 yard dash - they can go to Kent State, PWO at Penn State, or get recruited by a P5 program on full scholarship. Every school wants kids with 4.0 GPAs and can throw the ball 60 yards across their body.

Furthermore, the internet has removed any secrecy from the process. The days of an assistant coach in a hoodie watching a Pius X practice because Penn State isn't paying attention are over - every kid has a Hudl account and a highlight reel. And while the Valley has a lot of really good recruits, everyone in college football knows this. P5 programs are all over the Valley, with G5 programs right behind them.

Buford, GA can (and does) provide some exceptional kids to Lehigh, and if it's 1 or 2 kids in 4 years... it's exactly the equivalent of The Hun school, which provides the same number to other respective schools.

[HFO]

Academic standards are set by the Patriot League, not the individual school.

Really? Any more words of non-knowledge from your?

Patriot League
ARTICLE 7: OPERATIONAL BYLAWS
7.4 Eligibility Rules. [Council, December 2016]
a. First-Year Student-Athletes. First-year student-athletes are eligible for varsity competition.
b. Institutional Requirements. All students participating in intercollegiate athletics must meet
the institutional requirements for participation published by each MEMBER institution.

Eligibility Rules
d. Normal Academic Progress [Editorial revision, May 2007]. All students participating in
intercollegiate athletics must be enrolled full-time and must be making normal academic
progress in an academic program leading to a first baccalaureate degree.
Full-time status is based on the student-athletes’ level of academic work (undergraduate or
graduate) and the definition of full-time enrollment for that academic level at the APPLICABLE
institution.

NCAA Rules
Division I
40 percent of required coursework for a degree must be complete by the end of the second year, 60 percent by the end of the third year and 80 percent by the end of their fourth year.
Student-athletes are allowed five years of eligibility and athletically related financial aid.


So Lehigh University can admit by their OWN institutional requirements (whatever becomes the policy) and student remain academically eligible (whatever Lehigh deems normal academic progress). Currently 12 credits for undergraduate (NCAA rule also) and 9 credits for graduate school.

[ngineer]

The PL member schools must publish their admission standards for review and acceptance by the member schools. While each school may have some differing qualifications, they have to be reviewed and accepted by the League members. Each school provides the other members with their admissions for review by the others. A member school can challenge if a deviation is suspected.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Maybe someone close to the program in the 1990s can provide some feedback on this...

I always felt Lehigh's ability to establish a good "recruiting pipeline" (for lack of a better term) with Bethlehem Catholic under Higgins really contributed to the program's success and helped with attendance in the mid to late 90s through the mid 2000s. After Erik Marsh, I can't think of one Hawk that was a big time player who picked the 'Pards (or another PL school for that matter) over Lehigh for about a 10 year stretch EXCEPT for maybe Pat Brown whose father or uncle (pretty sure uncle) ironically went to Lehigh. I knew the Brown family quite well and used to hang out with Pat when I was a kid. Pat going to Lafayette was definitely a topic of discussion...

What was Donnie Roberts influence in getting a few quality players from Central Catholic?

[Justafan]

I seem to remember that Mike Gregorek's older brother Brian played for Lafayette. Both played at Bethlehem Catholic

Former Bethlheem Catholic grad and head football coach Mike Palos (1997-2001) also played for Lafayette I believe.

But point taken. I wonder if Tyler Ward can re-create that spark but kids today have wanderlust and many prefer to play where Mom and Dad can't visit them every weekend

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I seem to remember that Mike Gregorek's older brother Brian played for Lafayette. Both played at Bethlehem Catholic

Former Bethlheem Catholic grad and head football coach Mike Palos (1997-2001) also played for Lafayette I believe.

But point taken. I wonder if Tyler Ward can re-create that spark but kids today have wanderlust and many prefer to play where Mom and Dad can't visit them every weekend

Good call!

I remember the Gregorek Brothers and their parents! No offense to Mike Palos but he was not going to beat out Stambaugh (who was a local product), Brant Hall or Luke Cianello during that time. Landing Borda was a huge deal. I would say Kendra, Borda and Bednarik were the three best BC QB's over the last 30-35 years? Borda was being heavily recruited by Tennessee iirc before he got in some trouble? And it was not a serious transgression iirc. One good player from BC that got away from Lehigh around that time was John Dieser (another childhood friend of mine) who ended up at Villanova.

I would love to see a list of all the local kids who contributed to those late 90s through mid 00s teams.