Tatsch rolling in offers from Power Fives
Latrobe hasn’t had high major recruit since ’03
Latrobe High School hasn’t had a football player sign with a Power Five conference college since 2003. But when Ron Prady became the team’s coach last season, it didn’t take him long to come to the belief that he had Latrobe’s next major-college player in Alex Tatsch.
“I didn’t know a ton about him before last season when I took the job,” Prady said. “There’s nothing wrong with the Division II or FCS levels. But it was pretty evident to me that this guy could play at the next level and possibly the highest college level.”
Some major- college coaches now agree.
Tatsch is a junior linebacker who has been blowing up on the WPIAL recruiting scene. Before the season, he had scholarship offers from only Marshall and Connecticut. Well, Pitt offered him Monday, and don’t be surprised if an offer comes from Penn State in the near future. Tatsch also picked up recent offers from West Virginia, Wisconsin, Boston College and Virginia Tech.
Suddenly, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Tatsch is one of the most heavily recruited players in the WPIAL junior class. He made a visit to a Wisconsin game on Saturday.
“I’m a little surprised all the offers came this early,” Tatsch said. “I’ve seen other kids where they get a lot of offers after their junior season. I’m just grateful it’s happened this way.”
Prady believes there is good reason for the offers from big-time colleges.
“No. 1, I think schools like his length. He’s very long,” said Prady, a former Penn-Trafford assistant. “And everybody says he’s just so violent on the field when he gets to a play. He just explodes through people. Those things were pretty evident to me early on when I got here.
“He fits everything those colleges are looking for. I thought he could really blow up in recruiting this season, and after the first couple games, interest in him grew exponentially.”
The last Latrobe player to sign with a Power Five college was linebacker Tyler Altman, who signed with Indiana. The only other Power Five recruits from Latrobe in the past 35 years are offensive lineman Chad Reed (Pitt in 1998) and linebacker Bob Baum ( West Virginia in 1993).
Tatsch leads Latrobe in tackles with 71, including 33 solo. He has four sacks and three interceptions. His athletic ability is evident in the fact that he also plays running back and can catch the ball, too. He has rushed for 263 yards on 32 carries (8.2 average) and caught six passes for 94 yards.
“I feel like things really started to click for me my sophomore season,” Tatsch said. “I was making a lot of plays. I think it was then I felt like I could do this at the next level.”
Tatsch is one of the reasons Latrobe is having one of its best seasons in a long time. Last year, Prady guided the Wildcats to the playoffs. They won a postseason game for the first time since 1968 and finished with a 7-5 record. This season, Latrobe is 6-2 and has a big game Friday
against McKeesport (7-1). When was the last time Latrobe had such a big game this late in the season?
“Since we got a new coach last season,” Tatsch said, “and started winning some games, there’s definitely a little more buzz around school about football.”
About Tatsch, too.
Murray picks Irish
The Notre Dame track and field team already had landed two of the top senior distance runners in the WPIAL in Ringgold’s Ryan Pajak and Butler’s Drew Griffith. Last weekend, Notre Dame landed one of the top throwers in the WPIAL when Hempfield’s Peyton Murray committed to the Fighting Irish while on a visit to the school.
Murray won WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A discus titles as a junior and the WPIAL championship as a sophomore. He also is a top shot putter.
Murray was considering Pitt, Penn State, Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky before he visited Notre Dame. It is very rare for high school track and field athletes to get a full athletic scholarship, but when Notre Dame offered a partial scholarship, Murray jumped at it.
“I knew they were going to offer me,” Murray said. “But it was depending on how much the offer would be. We believe it was a good deal.”
Murray has liked Notre Dame for a long time.
“When I was in sixth grade and my brother was a thrower at DePaul, he had a meet at Notre Dame and my dad took me there,” Murray said. “I said then the place was awesome. I loved the campus. Now that I’m grown up, I realize it’s a great academic school, as well, and they have a great track program.”
Foster headed to Penn
Bradyn Foster, a 6-foot-8 senior basketball player at Highlands, is headed to the Ivy League.
Foster made a verbal commitment to Pennsylvania on Monday. Foster’s stock with colleges rose dramatically over the summer and he chose Penn over offers from Lehigh, Fairfield, Navy and Central Arkansas.
Foster averaged 20 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots a game last season and figures to be one of the top senior players in the WPIAL this season.
Lacrosse players decide
The Shady Side Academy lacrosse team will have four players this season who are Division I college recruits.
Junior James Rost made a verbal commitment to perennial power Johns Hopkins, which has won nine NCAA Division I championships.
Three other Shady Side players committed to Ivy League schools — senior Mac Mohn to Harvard, junior Seamus Riordan to Cornell and junior Ben Michels to Brown. Senior David Rhoades committed to Clarkson, a Division III team.