Sewickley Academy is the 14th-smallest school in WPIAL boys' basketball in terms of enrollment. The school has only a little more than 100 boys in the top three grades.

The school's gym has bleachers on only one side -- and only eight rows of them. You'd need a shoehorn to get 300 people in the place.

Everything suggests Sewickley Academy is one of the small ponds of district basketball. But the place has one of the WPIAL's big fish.

Tom Droney is a wiry 6-foot-6, 186-pound junior for the Panthers and one of the most heavily recruited guards in the WPIAL in recent years.

Although Droney isn't halfway through his junior year, some big-time colleges are hoping to reel him in for their programs and have offered him scholarships. Droney already has narrowed his field to Pitt, Notre Dame and Davidson.

If you looked in the stands during Sewickley Academy's Dec. 8 game against Avonworth, you got an idea of how heavily he is being recruited. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey was there. So were Pitt assistants Tom Herrion and Brian Regan.

Droney visited Notre Dame twice this fall and liked the place. He also likes the hometown team, but he was awfully impressed when he went on a visit to Davidson this fall and the entire team met him when he arrived at 9 p.m. on a Friday. Well, not quite the entire team. Stephen Curry wasn't there because he had just gotten his wisdom teeth pulled. Droney admits one of the main reasons he is considering Davidson is because of how Curry has excelled in the program.

Think of the schools recruiting Droney, and it proves a player can make it big from a small high school.

"I know people say I only play Class A basketball," Droney said recently, staring straight across Sewickley Academy's gym at the bleachers. "But look at what I've done when I've played AAU basketball against some of the top players in the country. I've held my own -- and a lot of times really held my own.

"I don't think playing here hurts me. Maybe some people look at who we play and see a team like OLSH. They say 'Who is OLSH?' But I love everything about this place. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Droney is averaging 25.6 points a game after averaging 21 a game as a sophomore.

But to fully appreciate where Droney is today, you have to know where he came from. Four and five years ago, no one could have predicted big-time colleges would one day recruit him. He was average-sized and his talent wasn't exactly super-sized, either. Then he hit a few growth spurts, his talent grew and all of a sudden coaches from Division I colleges were traveling down Ohio River Boulevard to watch him work out and play.

"I have to admit, it's really unexpected," Droney said with a laugh.

When he was in sixth and seventh grade, Droney used to play against one AAU team that had talented players like Chris Klimchock (now at Greensburg Salem), Jeff Yunetz (Latrobe) and Damon Porter (Highlands). Droney couldn't stack up with those players back then. He remembers playing against another AAU team that had Todd Thomas (Beaver Falls), T.J. McConnell (Chartiers Valley), Drew Falletta (Hopewell) and Cody Patton (North Hills).

"I'd look at those guys and think, 'Wow, I wish I could play on their team and be as good as them,' " Droney said.

Now, Droney is by far the most heavily recruited guard in the WPIAL senior or junior class.

So, what happened?

"I attribute some of it to my work ethic, but also some to my growth spurts," Droney said. "I really shot up and really just started working on my game."

Droney attended St. Margaret of Scotland School in Green Tree through eighth grade (Droney lives in Green Tree). But his parents weren't happy with his academics, so they sent him to Sewickley Academy and had him repeat eighth grade.

"Repeating eighth grade was not for sports at all," Droney said. "I was struggling some in school. Coming here to Sewickley really helped and now I get great grades.

"But the first couple months here, I wasn't happy at all. The school was hard. You have to do a lot of work. It's a tough school. It takes a few months to get acclimated to things."

After repeating eighth grade at Sewickley, Droney grew about four inches to 6 feet 1. He was 6-5 by the time he was a sophomore. He made a visit to Pitt this fall and was measured there at 6-6. He is a well-spoken, confident teenager who likes to fish. His family took a fishing trip to Montana last summer.

Droney got noticed by college coaches mostly by playing AAU basketball. He plays for the Basketball Stars of America, which is run by Sewickley Academy assistant coach Darryn Freedman.

Droney is versatile and plays mostly point guard for Sewickley Academy. But colleges like him at everything from point guard, to shooting guard to small forward.

"The thing about him is that he's even better when he plays AAU against top competition," Freedman. "There was no one who could guard him this summer [in AAU]. He's a legitimate 6-6 player who can play point guard."

When he was younger, Droney used to pattern himself after Bob Sura, an athletic guard from Florida State who played in the NBA for a number of years.

"I can't quite jump like him, though," Droney said with a laugh. "The guy I kind of pattern myself after now is Nick Calathes [a 6-6 guard at Florida]."

Droney was ready to pull the trigger and make a verbal commitment to a college this fall but decided against it.

"At this point in time, I honestly don't have a school I'm positive about," Droney said. "The schools haven't been putting that much pressure on me. When I get the feeling, I'll pull the trigger."

For right now, he's concentrating on winning big things for Sewickley Academy.

"So many people say I need to win something before I can be named a good player," Droney said. "That's my goal -- to win the WPIAL and the PIAA. You see guys like Terrelle Pryor, Jonathan Baldwin and Todd Thomas. They were always playing for WPIAL championships in whatever sport. That's what I want to do -- help my team succeed."