It's not much of a stretch to say that Donte Valentino's production as a high school football player was among the best in the WPIAL over the past four seasons.

A California Area High School graduate, Valentino became only the 35th player in WPIAL history to rush for 4,000 yards in a career and became the first to do it as a quarterback.

What also isn't much of a stretch is Valentino's size: 5 feet 7, 170 pounds. That might have been the only reason Valentino didn't get more recognition for his efforts.

"He just has a phenomenal first burst," California coach Joe Kuhns said. "It's just unbelievable.

"He has all the tools. Everything except size. If he was 6-5, he might have been talked about in the same breath as Terrelle Pryor. We'll never know."

Another area in which Valentino lacked size was the enrollment of his high school. That also might have hurt his profile.

But Valentino put some of those concerns to rest with a stellar performance at the ProGrass Classic football all-star game played last weekend at Waynesburg. In a game that was shortened to only one half due to a thunderstorm, Valentino rushed for a 45-yard touchdown and tossed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Charleroi's Ethan Hank.

The game featured players from schools of all sizes throughout Washington, Greene and southern Allegheny counties.

"It doesn't matter if it's Single-A or Quad-A. He's still pretty good," Kuhns said. "His TD run wasn't any different than any game he had in high school. It just looked like everybody else was standing still."

As the sports axiom goes: "You can't teach speed." And speed is speed no matter the level you're playing at. It might have taken a momentary adjustment, but Valentino's pure speed would translate at any level.

"I think I did OK [in the ProGrass Classic]," Valentino said. "It took a little bit at the beginning of the game to get the feel of the game. The speed is a little different than the speed at Single-A, but then everything was there.

"I think everyone knows I can play, but this proves to them I can play against this type of speed and still do the same things I did in Single-A. I just wish I could have done it in the second half."

Valentino will get the chance to show he can play the game at the college level soon. He will attend Citrus Junior College in Glendora, Calif.

Valentino likely would have been playing at California University of Pennsylvania this fall (Kuhns said Valentino had even been looking at Pitt) but he will head to California to make himself academically eligible to play in the NCAA.

Valentino ended up at Citrus through connections on the Vulcans coaching staff and through Kuhns.

"I need to be going to school first, and do good in football [second]," Valentino said. "That will come. Then if someone wants me, wants to give me a scholarship to a bigger school, that would be great and I'll go from there."

A commendable attitude, and one that is similar when he discusses what he will do while on the field.

After playing running back most of his first two seasons in high school and generally quarterback his junior and senior seasons, he had not yet been informed by his new coaches what position they plan on having him play.

"Whatever they want me to play," he said. "I'll try DB, special teams, wherever the team wants me play at. Whatever helps the team. It doesn't matter."

Kuhns said Valentino was a humble leader for the Trojans, adding that he has told Valentino that the world is his if he buckles down academically and does what he has to do on the West Coast.

"I think getting away from here, going away for two years, when you come back everything will be the same," Kuhns said. "It's just a matter of what you do with it. You've got to do what you've got to do, and things will work out for you."