Wednesday, August 27, 2003

By John E. Sacco, Tri-State Sports & News Service

The fact that Jim Gallagher played baseball right up to the beginning of football camp might lead one to think the Peters Township senior has decided which sport he is going to play collegiately.

	Peters Township quarterback Jim Gallagher also excels in baseball. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image. Big Seven: at a glance

Think again.

Gallagher, a standout quarterback and center fielder, will have a decision to make at some point. But now that it is football season, his favorite sport is football.

That will change once baseball begins again. Get the picture?

He just is not ready to make such a big decision.

"Not yet," Gallagher said. "I'm going to wait and see what happens. I don't want to miss the boat on anything."

Gallagher has been offered a scholarship to play football at Duke. He received scholarship offers from the Blue Devils, Villanova, UNC-Charlotte and UNC-Greensboro to play baseball. He has also been in contact with Virginia, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Maryland about baseball.

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Keith Hartbauer, Peters Township's football coach, said football recruiters are just a bit leery of Gallagher's height.

"Baseball may be the better avenue for him because of the concern over his size," Hartbauer said. "If he were an inch-and-a-half taller, he'd have 15 football offers. My point to [football recruiters] is why are you worried about it when you'll be getting a kid who will produce and make plays? Jim can go in any direction he wants."

Gallagher's immediate charge is to help lift Peters Township to its first winning season in nine years. The Indians qualified for the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs last season and were blown out by Pine-Richland, the eventual WPIAL runnerup, in the opening round.

Peters Township finished 4-6 overall, a marked improvement from the 1-9 record of 2001 while in Class AAAA.

Gallagher was the central figure in the turnaround. He completed 74 of 166 passes for 1,101 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 637 yards and seven touchdowns.

"With his peers, the faculty and everyone really, he exudes enthusiasm and confidence," Hartbauer said. "People look to him for making the right decisions.

"Jim's a kid who loves to play. Toward the latter part of last season, he started turning mediocre plays into something special or something big."

Right before camp opened, Gallagher was in San Diego playing baseball in the U.S. Amateur Baseball Federation World Series.

Earlier in the summer, he played for the Batting Practice team, made up of a number of top district high school players.

"I could count on one hand the number of times I slept in my bed at home this summer," Gallagher said. "There was no break and I got back one day before [football] camp started. It was a very busy schedule. I'll never forget it."

He's hoping to make Peters Township's football season unforgettable as well.

"I'm real excited for him," Hartbauer said. "I'm for whatever is in the best interest of Jim. Ultimately, he'll have to decide. But he's sitting in a pretty good situation."

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