Four years ago during a fitness test for eighth graders, Trinity football coach Ed Dalton saw some numbers that were off the charts.

Three students had impressed him in the standing long jump, the pro shuttle, bench press and squats.

He told the coaches around him that they might have three future Division 1-A players on their hands. Four years later and Dalton's assessment proved to be pretty accurate as Andrew Sweat, Mike Yancich and Brandon Weaver all signed letters of intent this month to play for Division 1-A schools.

"We do fitness tests at the end of the eighth grade season and their numbers were just off the charts," Dalton said. "All three of them were just awesome. I had watched them play from fifth grade on. They had all the physical tools -- you could just see it. It was just a matter of overall development."

Sweat is headed to Ohio State and Yancich to Penn State where the two will face off against each other for the first time since seventh grade when Sweat played for Trinity West and Yancich for Trinity East. Weaver, who played for Trinity South in grade school, will be attending Ohio University.

All the players came together in eighth grade and throughout high school they became one of the most talented groups of linebackers in the WPIAL. They also found success running the ball in the backfield, although all three were recruited to play linebacker at their respective schools.

The three Trinity seniors took different paths from when they first joined the program to their last game in the WPIAL quarterfinals this year. Weaver battled a nagging wrist injury throughout his high school career while Dalton had a sit down with Yancich and his parents during his sophomore year in hopes of getting him on the right track to earning a scholarship.

"I think Andrew was out in front a little bit earlier. He was a little more natural and saw the finish line before Mike and Brandon did," Dalton said. "I remember sitting down with Mike and his parents. I asked them if he had any idea where he wants to be in a year or two because his maturity might not have been there, but ultimately he knew what he wanted to accomplish."

The attention the three linebackers at a Class AAA school received is part of a larger trend at Trinity. Seven players in the past four years have received Division 1-A scholarships and 33 players have gone on to some level of college football in the past three years.

"We are at least pretty good at identifying kids at a younger age. The sooner you can identify kids with that potential the sooner you can get them to physically train," Dalton said. "There are kids in every school with that potential to become that level of athlete, it's just identifying them. You need to identify them and get them to buy into it at the eighth and ninth grade level."

Dalton has coached at Trinity for eight seasons and he says there are more top-level college prospects on the way, mostly on the offensive and defensive lines. Dalton takes his involvement in the recruiting process very seriously.

The overload of talent at linebacker led Dalton to try to move Sweat to safety early on where he played well, but his natural instincts at inside linebacker led Dalton to keep him there. Weaver played outside linebacker mostly with Yancich and Sweat on the inside.

"Playing alongside Andrew and Brandon that really helped me a lot," said Yancich. "We played together since middle school and practicing against each other made us all better players.

"It was in eighth grade when we finally figured out that all three of us in the same group could be something special."

As it turned out, they were.