Who will be next to enter Hall of Fame?

Some things I saw, heard and thought about over the summer.

Aliquippa’s Ty Law was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Aug. 3 and is the 13th player from the district ( WPIAL, City League or old Pittsburgh Catholic League) to be inducted. So who is next from the WPIAL?

Will it be Aliquippa’s Darrelle Revis or Woodland Hills’ Rob Gronkowski?

OK, maybe an asterisk needs to go next to Gronkowski’s name and his WPIAL connection. After all, he played in the WPIAL for only one season. But he still graduated from a WPIAL school.

Revis retired a year ago while Gronkowski retired after last season. A player must be retired five years before consideration to the HOF. My guess is Revis is a first- ballot selection and gets inducted first. Gronkowski might be the greatest tight end of all time and gets inducted the next year.

By the way, Revis would be the third Aliquippa grad to be inducted. Besides Law, the other is Mike Ditka. No other Pennsylvania high school has two players in the Hall of Fame.

• It’s only two few weeks until the first night ( Aug. 23) of games in Pennsylvania. The best game the first night in the WPIAL is Penn Hills at Pine- Richland ( defending WPIAL 5A champ against 6A champ). Too bad Penn Hills coach Jon LeDonne won’t be there. He has to serve that onegame suspension for that stinkin’ smoke bomb two of his players set off on the sideline before last year’s WPIAL final.

One of the most interesting games on the first night: Mt. Lebanon at Gateway. New Mt. Lebanon coach Bob Palko faces the No. 1 team in Class 5A.

• Class 5A is undoubtedly the best in the WPIAL this year, at least in terms of depth of quality teams.

• Looking around the state, what else is new? St. Joseph’s Prep is No. 1 in Class 6A. St. Joe’s is loaded this year, better than last year when they won Class 6A. St. Joe’s has three juniors who are big- time prospects. Quarterback Kyle McCord has already committed to Ohio State. Receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. are two other juniors with many offers from major colleges.

• Pennlive. com did early state rankings in July. The No. 1 teams were St. Joseph’s Prep ( Class 6A), Gateway ( Class 5A), Erie Cathedral Prep ( Class 4A), Aliquippa ( 3A), Southern Columbia ( 2A) and Farrell ( 1A).

• So far, seven WPIAL seniors have made commitments to FBS colleges. They are: Westinghouse DE Dayon Hayes ( Pitt), Mars OL Michael Carmody ( Notre Dame), Central Catholic DE A. J. Beatty ( North Carolina), Woodland Hills TE Josh Rawlings ( Virginia), Seneca Valley’s Josh Kaltenberger ( Purdue), North Hills OL Ron Novosedliak ( Central Michigan) and Norwin QB Jack Salopek ( Western Michigan).

• This should tell you how good Gateway running back- defensive back Derrick Davis really is: Alabama offered a scholarship a few weeks ago. Gateway coach Don Holl said most colleges still don’t know what is Davis’ best future position.

• I was at a workout at Westinghouse High School recently and it just feels like something special could be going on there. Yes, the Bulldogs have Pitt recruit Hayes, but they have a number of starters back from last year’s City League finalist. And new coach Donta Green looks like he is having a big impact on simply creating interest in football.

For most of the summer, Green had workouts four afternoons a week. He usually had 30 or so players show up for the workouts. For a small City League school like Westinghouse that has lacked players in recent years, that is impressive.

• A few other things we’re hearing. Baldwin might have one of its best teams in a number of years. The same with Peters Township. Peters Township’s group of skill- position

players is one of the best in the WPIAL. The big question with the Indians is linemen. Watch out for Bethel Park.

• You never know who you might see on the golf course. Last week, I ran into former Pitt basketball guard Tom Richards. After seeing Richards again, it hit me that Tom Richards should most certainly be in the WPIAL Hall of Fame, but isn’t.

Richards played at Moon, averaged 32.3 points a game as a senior ( without the 3- point line). He scored 63 points in a game ( third most in WPIAL history), 1,574 for his career and was considered one of the top guards in the state.

Richards signed with Pitt and was a starting guard on Pitt’s 1974 team that made it to the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament.

Hey WPIAL, put him in next year! By the way, Richards was in town last weekend for the wedding of his son, Jason, a Pitt assistant. Also in Pittsburgh last weekend was one Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Richards and Curry made a super backcourt at Davidson.

• And while we’re on the subject of great shooters and the WPIAL, Highlands’ Micah Mason should go in the HOF also. Yes, he’s young ( 2012 graduate), but he’s one of the greatest scorers and shooters in WPIAL history and one of the greatest shooters ( 3- point range) in the history of the NCAA.

• I sure would like to see an “open gym” or workout this fall at Laurel Highlands. That might sound strange. But Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher is a freshman guard who already has been offered scholarships by Illinois and Rhode Island. This doesn’t make him a “great” player, but an interesting factoid: Gallagher played AAU last summer with LeBron James’ son.

Gallagher, though, appears to be plenty good on his own.