First in a series on top high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

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	Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Gateway's Justin King gets a 5-star rating as one of the nation's top players. Click photo for larger image. High School Notebook: McCurry has heart to coach after surgery

There is a dark side to Justin King. He is a frequent movie-goer -- by himself. No girlfriends. No friends. Just Justin, the movie and darkness.

"I love movies by myself," King said. "I just like to get away from everything and all the attention."

But when it comes to finding the top high school football player in Western Pennsylvania this season, the light shines and he is King.

A 6-foot, 185-pound senior at Gateway, King is in the spotlight as a standout running back and defensive back who has more than 50 scholarship offers from schools across the country. He is widely regarded as the top player in the WPIAL, and some scouting services rank him among the top 10 in the country.

King's final list of colleges says everything about his talent. His top three schools are Michigan, Penn State and Florida. His next three are Ohio State, Southern California and Miami, and he lists Pitt as having an outside chance.

This past spring, Southern California coach Pete Carroll showed up at Gateway to talk with Terry Smith, who is the Gators' coach and King's stepfather.

"We had a coach here from the University of Texas," Smith said. "We had all these big-time schools expressing interest who usually don't come to Pennsylvania to recruit. Pete Carroll told me Justin was the only kid he came to see in Pennsylvania."

In the spring, King said Michigan was probably his No. 1 choice. He is friends with Michigan players Steve Breaston and Ryan Mundy, who both played at Woodland Hills. But King says Michigan, Penn State and Florida are even now. He plans to graduate from Gateway after the first semester and be at a college in January.

"Penn State has really come on, just by the way they're presenting themselves," King said. "I get about two letters a day from [defensive coordinator] Tom Bradley. He's my man. He writes me saying I can't get a date for a movie. But some of it is serious, too."

King is seriously good. He has gained glory by running the football, rushing for 1,763 yards last season and scoring 31 touchdowns.

But colleges want King as a defensive back. The Sporting News ranks him the No. 1 defensive back in the country and the No. 9 player overall. Rivals100.com ranks him the No. 1 cornerback and the No. 10 player overall.

"When you look at the long term, cornerback is a better position for him. He's built like a cornerback," Smith said.

King's biggest attribute is his speed. He has run the 40-yard dash in 4.32 seconds.

"He has to be the premier player in Western Pennsylvania because of the way he plays both sides of the ball," North Hills coach Jack McCurry said.

McCurry compared King to Ted Ginn Jr., a 2004 graduate of Glenville High School in Ohio who was ranked the No. 1 player in the country last year by Super Prep. Ginn is now at Ohio State.

The funny thing is Smith used to wonder if King would ever want to play sports. Smith started dating King's mother, Alison, when King was about 8.

"There were constant battles for the TV because Justin wanted to watch Barney and everything else and I wanted to watch sports," Smith said. "He had no interest in sports at all."

King credits Smith for much of his success, even though King lives with his grandparents in the Gateway district. His mom and Smith live in the Woodland Hills district.

"Terry has had a tremendous impact on me," King said. "When I first met him, I didn't like sports. Then being around his family, I just absorbed it."