A week ago, Center High School defensive back Ashton Cobb signed a letter of intent to play football at Kentucky.

Perhaps no one was more interested in Cobb putting his name on the NCAA form than Evan Blankenship.

Blankenship is a junior at Center, one of Cobb's teammates and a sure-fire Division I prospect for the Class of 2007.

A lineman, Blankenship has the size -- he's 6 feet 4 and 310 pounds -- and athletic ability that makes college coaches drool. Add in a grade-point average in the 3.4 range and it is easy to understand why Ohio State and Pitt had offered him scholarships before last week's national signing day.

"He played basketball last year and moves well for a guy his size," Center coach Larry Taddeo said. "He's not playing this year but that doesn't mean he's just laying around. He's a hard worker."

Blankenship has been on the Center varsity since he was a ninth grader. He has improved every year and came on this past season.

It hasn't hurt that he has had Cobb as something of a recruiting role model.

"Ashton is one of the hardest workers I've ever been around," Taddeo said. "The other guys have seen that and they've seen how it has paid off for him. I would say that's rubbed off on guys like Evan."

Taddeo said Blankenship is a better pass-blocker than run-blocker at this stage of his career, which makes sense.

It's easy to keep opponents away from the quarterback when a player has Blankenship's size and agility.

"We have another lineman, Nate Glasser, who is also a good one. He plays right beside Evan, but he doesn't have the size," Taddeo said of Glasser who is 6-0, 275. "If he was a couple inches taller he'd be getting all kind of attention, too."

Another Center player who could blossom into a Division I prospect is junior quarterback Carl Farrow, who is 6-4, 175.

"He's got a strong arm," Taddeo said. "I think he'll get some looks."

Friday night madness

Beaver Falls's hiring of Ryan Matsook as its head football coach has created something of a problem for Dan Matsook, Ryan's father.

Dan Matsook is the superintendent in the Center School District. He is also Rochester High School's former coach and a football junkie.

Since graduating from Youngstown State, Ryan Matsook has been on the Rochester coaching staff headed by his uncle, and Dan's brother, Gene. That made Friday nights easy for Dan.

"I'd watch the first half of the Center game when we were at home and then I'd leave and go over to Rochester for the second half," Dan Matsook said.

But with his son at Beaver Falls, Dan Matsook isn't sure what he's going to do Friday evenings this fall.

"I don't know. I guess I'll watch our [Center's] first half and maybe go to Beaver Falls," he said.

Great, but what will he do the night Beaver Falls plays Center?

"That's when I'll just go to Rochester," he said with a laugh.

Get a map

For the most part, the WPIAL's shifting of teams to different conferences in its football realignment made sense. One move that has some scratching their heads has to do with Cornell.

Cornell has to play in Class AA the next two seasons because a co-operative agreement with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Coraopolis put Cornell over the PIAA figure for Class A.

Boys at OLSH, which does not have a football team, can play at Cornell under the agreement, but the combined boys' enrollments at the two schools is used to determine the classification.

The WPIAL put Cornell in the Tri-County North Conference comprising mostly Lawrence County schools.

That wouldn't be a big deal except Cornell will drive past most of the schools in the Midwestern Athletic Conference to compete in the Tri-County North.

Meanwhile, Ellwood City, which is in Lawrence County, remains in the MAC.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to move Ellwood City into the Tri-County North and place Cornell in the MAC?

"We tried to maintain the integrity of already existing conferences wherever we could," said WPIAL president Tim O'Malley, who is Butler High School athletic director.

"The MAC had expressed an interest in remaining the way it was.

"We had to add a team into the Class AA conferences because we have 45 schools in that classification. That makes for five conferences of nine teams. We had to find places for Cornell and Sto-Rox."

So, Sto-Rox, which is closer to Pittsburgh, was placed in the MAC and Cornell was put into the Tri-County North. O'Malley also said it was better, from a competitive stand point, for Cornell, which was 0-10 in the Class A Big 7 last year, to play in the Tri-County North.

Cornell coach and athletic director Denny Shazer said he wasn't thrilled about the prospect of playing in the MAC against perennial powers Aliquippa, Beaver Falls, Beaver and Center.

"We would have had the bus break down for seven hours on the way to Aliquippa," he said with a laugh.

O'Malley hinted that Cornell will only have to make the trek north for two years. He sees a major overall of conferences for the 2008 season.HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL