North Hills sophomore recognized
Parham on 6A second team; Carney on first
It shouldn’t be a big surprise that Butler’s Devin Carney and Fox Chapel’s Eli Yofan made the Pennsylvania Sports Writers All-State Team for Class 6A. After all, both players were selected last year.
But history says it is a surprise that North Hills’ Royce Parham made all-state. After all, he’s a sophomore.
It is highly unusual for sophomores from southwestern Pennsylvania to make all-state in the largest classification, and Parham was a second-team selection. Since the all-state teams were picked by classifications starting in 2003, only three sophomores from the WPIAL or City League have been selected in the biggest class. Ethan Morton of Butler and the WPIAL made first-team as a sophomore in 2018, Geno Thorpe of Shaler made third-team in 2011 and DeJuan Blair of Schenley and the City League made second team as a 10th-grader in 2005.
Parham, who now stands 6-foot-8, had a terrific sophomore year in helping North Hills to the best season in school history. North Hills went undefeated in the regular season for the first time, finished with a 26-2 record, played in a WPIAL championship for only the second time and made it to the PIAA quarterfinals for the first time.
Parham was one of the most dominating players in the WPIAL, averaging 20.8 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocks while shooting 64.2% from the field and 74.4% from the free-throw line.
He was only the sixth sophomore selected to the Post-Gazette Fabulous 5 allstar team and he has 835 career points. Parham has scholarship offers from Duquesne and Robert Morris, and Penn State, West Virginia, Indiana and Xavier among others, are showing interest.
Carney, a senior guard, made first-team all-state for the second consecutive year after averaging 26 points a game. He finished his career with 2,082 points.
Carney recently signed withDuquesne. He originally signed with Elon in November,
but re-opened his recruiting when Elon coach Mike Schrage left to become anassistant at Duke.
Yofan, a senior guard, was a third-team all-state selection last year but moved up to second team this year after leading Fox Chapel to its first WPIAL title since 1977. A two-time P-G Fab 5 pick, Yofan averaged 19.3 points and 5.9 rebounds, shot 50% from the field and made 47 3-pointers. He finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,600 points. Yofan has not made a college decision.
Carney, Parham and Yofan were the only WPIAL players selected to the Class 6A team. All told, the WPIAL had 21 players make the six all-state teams, including 11 first-team selections.
Here is the complete 6A all-state squad:
Class 6A
First team
Daniel Skillings, 6-6, Sr., Roman Catholic
Christian Fermin, 6-10, Sr., Pocono Mountain West
Demetrius Lilley, 6-9, Sr., Lower Merion
Ruben Rodriguez, 6-1, Jr., Reading
Devin Carney, 6-1, Sr., Butler
Xzayvier Brown, 6-1, Jr., Roman Catholic
Justin Moore, 6-2, Sr., Archbishop Wood
Second team
Khalil Farmer, 6-3, Sr., Roman Catholic
Royce Parham, 6-8, Soph., North Hills
Jalil Bethea, 6-2, Soph., Archbishop Wood
Jason Shields, 6-5, Sr., Scranton
Eli Yofan, 6-2, Sr., Fox Chapel Area
Cameron Wallace, 6-4, Fr., Great Valley
Third team
Dylan Blair, 5-10, Jr., Downingtown West
Isaac Harris, 6-3, Sr., Northampton Area
Tyler Houser, 6-9, Sr., Cedar Cliff
Sam Brown, 6-2, Sr., LaSalle College
Donovan Hill, 6-8, Sr., Central Dauphin
Rasheem Dearry, 6-3, Sr., Cheltenham
Player of the Year: Daniel Skillings, Roman Catholic
Co-Coaches of the Year: Patrick Fleury, Cheltenham, and Chris McNesby, Roman Catholic