‘We’re not done yet,’ says Heinauer The other Carmody
And Heinauer has suited Mars well.
Robby Carmody is a wellknown basketball player at Mars, widely regarded as one of the best senior players in the state who has committed to Notre Dame. There could be another Division I college player in the Carmody family, but in a different sport.
Mike Carmody, Robby’s younger brother, starts at tight end and defensive end for Mars – and he is only a sophomore. This is his first year of high school football and Carmody is 6 feet 5, 240 pounds.
“I think there’s some pressure on Mike, not from coaches, but from himself,” said Heinauer. “Having a brother as talented as Robby is not easy. But Mike is a kid who is still growing and maturing and he’s starting to understand what’s expected of him. He’s a smart kid and I would think he might be [a Division I college player]. Someone will take him because of his size and athletic ability. He’s got a long way to go, but remember he’s only a 10th-grader.”
Mike Carmody also plays basketball and should start in that sport for the Planets this year, also.
Fallen Tigers
Beaver Falls won WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A titles last season, but the Tigers have had a long and hard fall this season, taking a 1-7 record into their final game of the season.
Noone really expected muchfrom Beaver Falls this season. After all, first year coachNick Nardone had onlytwo returning starters fromlast season. That might ormight not have played a smallrole in coach Ryan Matsook’ s decision to step downas coach, although Matsooksaid it didn’t. Whatever,the fact is that no WPIALteam that has won a PIAA championship has ever fallen so far, so fast.
Heading into this season, 39 WPIAL teams had won PIAA championships. Only three of them had a record below .500 the next season. The worst was South Side Beaver, which won a PIAA title in 1999 and finished 2-8 the next season. The only other PIAA champs from the WPIAL that finished with a below .500 record the next season were 1988 Central Catholic (4-5-1 the next year) and 1993 North Hills (4-5-1 the next season).
Woody High and NFL
George Novak is no longer the coach at Woodland Hills, but the school’s pipeline to the NFL is still open.
An NFL survey of opening-day rosters showed Woodland Hills was one of only 10 high schools in the country with five or more players in the league. They are Rob Gronkowski (New England), Quinton Jefferson (Seattle), Rontez Miles (New York Jets), Lafayette Pitts (Jacksonville) and Ejuan Price (Los Angeles Rams). Price is a rookie and is the 12th former Woodland Hills Wolverine to play in the NFL since the school opened in 1987. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) has the most NFL players with 12, followed by Long Beach Poly (Calif.) with seven, Glades Central (Fla.) Glenville (Ohio) with six and five others with five.
Penn Hills had two players on opening-day rosters, but it’s now three in the NFL because Aaron Donald was not on the Rams’ roster opening day because of a contract holdout. The two other former Penn Hills players in the NFL are Barry Church (Jacksonville) and Treyvon Hester (Oakland Raiders).
Overall, 21 former WPIAL players were on NFL opening-day rosters, but 22 if you count James Conner (Steelers). Conner played at McDowell, which was in the WPIAL when he played there.
Two City League players are in the NFL – Brashear’s John Wetzel (Arizona) and Allderdice’s Will Clarke (Tampa Bay).