Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Player of the year: Terrelle Pryor. Players of the year The Honor Roll 1994 Brandon Short McKeesport 1995 Tony Zimmerman Penn-Trafford 1996 LaVar Arrington North Hills 1997 Brandon Williams Valley 1998 Rod Rutherford Perry 1999 Cecil Howard McKeesport 2000 Josh Lay Aliquippa 2001 Tyler Palko West Allegheny   Steve Breaston Woodland Hills 2002 Paul Posluszny Hopewell 2003 Eugene Jarvis Central Catholic 2004 Eugene Jarvis Central Catholic 2005 Dorin Dickerson West Allegheny 2006 Terrelle Pryor Jeannette

Terrelle Pryor could tell he was being followed. Many games this season, the Jeannette High School quarterback noticed opponents assigning a "spy" to him. The job of the "spy" was to track Pryor everywhere and contain him.

As covert operations go, such missions were a complete failure.

There was no stopping Pryor in most games this season. An army might have worked better than a spy.

A gifted 6-foot-6, 220-pound junior, Pryor had a tremendous season and has been selected the Post-Gazette 2006 Player of the Year. The award goes to the top player in the WPIAL and City League. Some former winners were Hopewell's Paul Posluszny, McKeesport's Brandon Short, North Hills' LaVar Arrington, Woodland Hills' Steve Breaston, West Allegheny's Tyler Palko and Perry's Rod Rutherford.

"A couple of games, it seemed like there were three or four spies on me," Pryor said. "I really just took what defenses gave me."

And he took a lot. He had more than 3,400 yards of offense in leading Jeannette to the WPIAL Class AA championship and a second-place finish in the PIAA. He also was a standout defensive back and sometimes punted.

He is also a star basketball player and might be the most heavily recruited football-basketball athlete in Western Pennsylvania since Bishop Canevin's Tom Clements in the 1970s. Clements eventually chose to play football at Notre Dame over basketball at North Carolina.

"Everybody throws the word great around a lot, probably too much," said Jeannette coach Ray Reitz. "But this kid truly is a great athlete."

Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Nebraska and Clemson are some of the schools that have offered him football scholarships. Pitt, Penn State, Connecticut, Clemson and Miami have offered him basketball scholarships.

Pryor says he might like to try both sports in college, but many believe football would be his best bet. How many 6-6 quarterbacks are there with Pryor's ability? This season, he rushed for 1,676 yards on 197 attempts (8.7 average). He completed 92 of 163 passes for 1,732 yards. He threw for 15 touchdowns and scored 29, including one as a receiver.

Although Pryor has great athletic ability, colleges are telling him he can play quarterback.

"I know Michigan likes him as a quarterback and I'm almost positive Notre Dame does, too," Reitz said. "I know a lot of people will tell a kid stuff like that just to get him to their school. But we would like to see him get a shot at QB."

Pryor has a basketball in his hands a lot these days. Two days after the PIAA championship, he and his Jeannette teammates were in Fort Meyers, Fla., playing against some of the top teams in the country.