After a recent game, Jeannette High School coach Ray Reitz was made aware of a man standing outside the team locker room with a bag of footballs. The man wanted Jeannette star Terrelle Pryor to sign the balls.

Reitz shooed away the man, believing the balls might very well end up for sale on eBay, like some others with Pryor's signatures.

That situation is an example of how Pryor's star status has become so big that Reitz must wear more than a coaching hat this season.

Unintentionally, Pryor has turned Reitz, 51, into everything from coach to ambassabor-to-college-coaches to body guard to security guard to media liaison to policeman of Pryor memorabilia.

Not that long ago, a star high school athlete would become popular and well-known in his town and maybe his side of the state. But with the Internet and cable television, Pryor, a senior quarterback-defensive back, has become well-known, even across the country. ESPN The Magazine was at Jeannette earlier this week taking pictures of Pryor because he will be the cover story in an upcoming issue.

"There are a lot of things you have to deal with because of Terrelle, but they're not all bad," said Reitz, who is on sabbatical from his job at Pittsburgh Brewing. "But the thing you have to realize is, it's not going to be like this every year. I know I'm not going to have a kid like him again."

Reitz is not the only one in the middle of Pryormania. A guidance counselor and others who work at Jeannette also have to deal with it. It's not uncommon for just an average Joe to stop by the school and leave something for Pryor to autograph.

Rick Klimchock is Pryor's guidance counselor and also used to coach Pryor on Jeannette's basketball team.

"I can't tell you how much mail this kid gets from people who want him to sign things," Klimchock said. "He got a letter from someone in Maine, asking him to sign a card. People send him posters to sign."

A football signed by Pryor was selling on eBay yesterday for $99.99. Someone also was trying to sell a floorboard signed by Pryor for $59.99.

"We'll have people come in here off the street and ask if they can have a picture taken with him," Klimchock said.

For two years, Reitz has dealt with college coaches who want to recruit Pryor. But because Reitz does not work at the school in the day, Klimchock and Jeannette athletic director Bob Murphy also deal with college coaches, setting up meetings with Pryor, who has not made a college decision.

Pryor has two study halls a day, and that's when Reitz and Klimchock try to set up meetings with college coaches. One day this week, Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, West Virginia assistant Tony Gibson and a Florida assistant all came to the school to meet with Pryor.

"For the most part, we try to keep him in class," Klimchock said.

Pryor had a 3.4 grade point average in the first semester.

"Whether we think it's a good idea or bad idea for him to sign something or take a picture, our philosophy is, 'If the kid wants to do it, let him,' " Klimchock said. "He's 18. He can make up his own mind whether to sign something."

Reitz is leery about anyone who wants a Pryor autograph. Earlier this year, three footballs and one basketball signed by Pryor were on eBay for anywhere from $49.99 to $99.99.

"You don't know how many times this year, someone will be standing and watching practice," Reitz said. "I'll say to myself, 'Do I know this guy?' Then they'll say, 'Can I get my son an autograph?' "

Reitz has come to enjoy many of the people he has met through Pryor's years. Well, at least some of them.

"I'm 51 years old. I have enough friends. I don't need more just because they want to get to Terrelle," Reitz said. "The thing is, Terrelle has grown immensely through this whole process. If this were a couple years ago, we would've been butting heads. But right now, I couldn't ask for a better kid as a team leader."