Buckeyes rate
Mike White |12:25 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2
Gateway's Dorian Bell is the highest-rated player in Ohio State's recruiting class, at least according to rivals.com. But the Buckeyes' class overall rates as the best in the country so far.
Ohio State already has verbal commitments from 25 players, and both rivals.com and scout.com ranks the group No. 1 in the country. That could change as the recruiting season moves forth, but the Buckeyes probably won't drop much. Bell, a linebacker, is the only 5-star recruit in the class, but the group is loaded with 4-star recruits, including Gateway receiver-defensive back Corey Brown and Jeannette running back Jordan Hall.
While the class is loaded with players from Ohio, it also has three from Florida and two from Kentucky.
The No. 2 class in both rivals.com and scout.com is USC. The Trojans have 16 recruits so far.
Rivals.com ranks Pitt's class 47th so far, but the Panthers have only 11 commitments and their class isn't close to being complete. Penn State's class of 18 players is No. 28. Scout.com ranks Penn State's class 15th and Pitt's No. 42. As said before, many of these rankings will change as the recruiting season moves along.
Supreme athlete
The Post-Gazette picks a male and female athlete of the year in June. Here's a good candidate for the female winner: Sarah Oczypok of Thomas Jefferson.
Oczypok is a senior and a starter on the volleyball team that is in second place in its conference. But she also is a talented golfer, qualifying for the WPIAL girls' individual championship next week. Thomas Jefferson doesn't have a girls' team, so she plays on the boys' team. For individual championships, though, she competes against the girls. On some days, she plays a golf match and then goes to a volleyball match.
The volleyball-golf combo is unusual because many of the top girls' golfers in the area don't play any other sports. They concentrate on golf.
But that's not all Oczypok does. In the spring, she is a standout javelin thrower, finishing sixth at the PIAA Class AAA championships last spring. And she also is a member of Thomas Jefferson's girls' basketball team.