Hitting the trifecta
Steel Valley’s Donovan excels in three sports
Brandon Donovan has a big leg, and he wasn’t ashamed to show it off as Steel Valley’s kicker the past four seasons.
Donovan would sometimes boom kickoffs through the uprights. He once connected on a 55yard field goal in practice.
But Donovan’s leg or his smooth jump shot weren’t the biggest reasons for his high school athletic success.
His powerful arm and ability to swing a baseball bat was the cause of that.
Donovan used an outstanding senior season on the diamond to put the finishing touch on an exceptional high school career, and his excellence in that sport, combined with his basketball and football talents, have made him the 2014-15 Post-Gazette South Xtra Male High School Athlete of the Year.
It’s another big honor for Donovan, who was named the Post-Gazette Player of the Year in baseball this spring after boasting an 8-2 record and 1.37 ERA, 124 strikeouts in 66 innings, a .567 batting average and 22 RBIs.
Donovan, a 6-foot-1 righthander, went 21-4 and struck out 260 in 163 innings in his four seasons, while batting .482. He led Steel Valley to its first WPIAL baseball title his junior season. In basketball, he was a two-year starter at shooting guard, and in football a four-year starting kicker. He also started three games at safety his senior season.
Having shown excellent athletic ability from an early age, Donovan had hoped his success would carry over to high school.
“It went a lot better than I ever expected,” Donovan said.
Steel Valley baseball coach Tim Vickers said he knew he had a special player when Donovan entered the program, but even Vickers didn’t realize the extent of Donovan’s potential.
“He came in touching 81 [mph] on the gun. And as a hitter, he was not very polished,” Vickers said. “But he was extremely athletic and got by because of that. He then got stronger. He threw harder. He mentally dominated the game batting. Nobody projected what he became in the end.”
Donovan batted .375 as a freshman and had two performances late in the season that showed his two-way ability might make him a star. He hit the winning two-run homer in a must-win game against Brentwood that helped Steel Valley secure a playoff bid. A game earlier, he sparkled in his first first career start on the mound, a narrow loss to a loaded Shady Side Academy team that went on to reach the WPIAL semifinals.
“It definitely set the tone for future years,” said Donovan, who didn’t lose a game the next two seasons.
Donovan was thrust into a much larger role as a sophomore when pitching ace Derek
Morrison was lost for the season after having Tommy John surgery. All Donovan did was go 6-0 with 1.20 ERA, and increased his batting average to .441.
That set the stage for a memorable junior season in which he went 7-0 with a 1.50 ERA, struck out 78 in 46⅔ innings, and hit .478 with 37 RBIs. He was particularly dominant in the WPIAL playoffs, throwing a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 1-0 first-round win against Apollo-Ridge, and a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 1-0 semifinal triumph over No. 2 seed Quaker Valley.
“When I look back to his junior year playoff run, it was absolutely amazing,” Vickers said. “What he did in that Quaker Valley game, I’ve never seen anything close to it. He was completely dominant.”
Steel Valley beat Seton-LaSalle, 6-5, in the WPIAL championship. Donovan said that win was the highlight of his career.
The Ironmen advanced to the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA quarterfinals Donovan’s senior season. He struck out a career-high 19 in a regular-season game against Seton-LaSalle.
Of course, Donovan excelled in other sports, too. His senior year, he averaged 14.3 points per game in basketball – second-best on the team – and converted 38 extra points and two field goals in football.
Donovan is continuing his baseball career at Radford University, a Division I school in Virginia.
“I think the sky’s the limit for this kid,” Vickers said. “I haven’t been around many players like him.”