Gateway High no longer for PSU

The following was my column for the Blackhawk Voice student newspaper that originates from Bethel Park, home of the WPIAL AAAA Champions who beat Gateway at Heinz Field last November 22 (Yes, the night of the Michigan St. game. I had to choose, imagine my fortune to have that misfortune). None of our kids were widely recruited. Unless you’re from Pittsburgh, you probably couldn’t name a single kid on our team, but we still handled the “superior athletes” from Gateway. Corey Brown had one catch on a secondary lacking probably a full second on his 40 time. Dorian Bell wasn’t that great either. The truth is, if these are the difference makers for Ohio St. next year, things could be much, much worse.

Hype doesn’t win championships, champions do.
The Hawks, the freshly minted WPIAL AAAA football champs don’t have the biggest linemen. They don’t have the fastest receivers. They don’t have an abundance of many of the things college scouts drool over.
But apparently Dorian Bell and Corey Brown of Gateway do. Those things will take the pair to The Ohio State University next fall to play football for the Buckeyes.
Hopefully they can get advice on how to deal with failure from their new teammates in Columbus, seeing as they’re pretty good at this whole frittering away championships thing, too.
Those looking to make excuses for the nationally ranked Gators could probably find many.
The turf at Heinz Field was a veritable block of ice, and chewed up by a Steeler game the previous Thursday and three other WPIAL championships games that day. It can be argued that the field conditions neutralized the Gators’ clear speed advantage.
Well guess what? The Hawks had to deal with the field conditions as well. Other than the reverse pass from Matt Bliss to John Schademan in the first quarter to set up the Hawks’ first and only touchdown, the big yardage plays many have come to expect from the Hawks this season were non existent.
Championship teams make adjustments. The Hawks adjusted to the field conditions, and the Gators did not. The conditions called for a smash mouth football. It was Lyle Marsh vs. Dorian Bell, and it was Marsh who was equal to the task, not the "five star recruit" Bell.
The Hawks were better on offense.
Others will point to Gateway’s bonehead giveaways and say their +16 turnover margin this season proves that the title game performance was a fluke.
Those people would be wrong as well.
First of all, Championship teams don’t turn the ball over. The Hawks gave up the ball once, leading to the only Gateway points.
Second of all, Championship teams force turnovers. The pass rush on Gateway quarterback Rob Kalkstein twice led to pivotal interceptions by Bethel’s Adam Lazenga and Ahmad "Mitch" Hakeem.
The Hawks were better on defense.
Finally, some might say that had Gateway kicker Ryan Lichtenstein not seen his extra point after Dorian Bell’s touchdown blocked, the game would have been played differently. Rather than a four point deficit at the end of the game, the Gators could have played for a field goal to tie the game.
But that falls on the Gators. While the Gateway fans were celebrating and breathing a collective sigh of relief, clearly the team was as well, failing to block for their kicker.
The Hawks’ special teams took care of business. After their touchdown, Bethel kicker Pat Lydon banged home his extra point behind a line working hard to keep what happened to Gateway from happening to them.
Also, give Lydon credit for kicking a 27-yard field goal into Heinz Field’s famed open endzone to force the Gators to play for a touchdown.
The Hawks were better on special teams.
So, Bethel fans, don’t let the doubters take anything away from your football team. They were simply the better team in all three facets of the game.
Though people might say the Gators choked, you know deep down that it was your football team that went out and won the game on their own merit, in the pressure cooker of a pro stadium in front of 20,000 people.
This championship needs savoring. Don’t waste a minute.
The Hawks were better.

when you say something might have happened between Justin and the coaches, do you mean the coaches at PSU or the coaches at Gateway? If it was the former, I could see why Gateway coaches would steer their players away from PSU, but if it was the later, then I don’t see why they would let that get in the way of anything (especially since King isn’t even at PSU anymore).

What also doesn’t make much sense is it isn’t like Justin didn’t succeed at PSU and go on to the NFL, so why would any other Gateway kids look at PSU and think anything negative?

Gateways’ coach is Terry Smith. Former PSU great wide receiver who was also the stepdad to Justin King.

Rumor has it Smith was not pleased with how Joe handled the apartment fight and specificially the situation with King. I guess he felt Joe should have come out to his defense in the beginning instead of waiting until the DA dropped the charges. There may also be some bad blood from Smith for not being offered a position on the staff after Norwood left for Baylor.

Some people have speculated that Smith is ticked with Joe and steering his players away from PSU now because of it. I don’t know if I believe this or not. Seems pretty petty to me if true. You have to be careful what you read on message boards (and blogs) because some people like to stir up drama where there sometimes isn’t any.

I don’t see what the big deal is… there is a reason why these kids (Bell and Brown) choose OSU. Because they were Buckeye material… lets focus on the kids are our PSU material and leave this petty bickering to petty people whomever it may be!

And what the hell is that I read on Silas Redd!!! I thought Penn State was his dream school?!?!?! I’m beginning to think he likes playing games!

Some of these coaches need to be handled w/ kid gloves more than the players.

Bunch of cry-babies if you ask me, if Terry Smith has a problem tough. He is not God of football, he is a high school coach, sometimes these asshats need to remember that they are there to help boys become men, not get their ego stroked.

What a jagoff if true.

PSU no longer for Gateway!

Maybe the kids at Gateway watched Prime U and heard Deion and his staff talking about how out of shape and undercoached (regarding running form) Lydell Sargeant was. Or they read the article last year this time about Morelli being severely under coached.

:) Just in one of those moods today :)