It's considered a nice compliment when a coach refers to one of his players as a "student of the game."

But what if that athlete was so immersed in and adept at his sport that he progressed well beyond the "student" stage and instead should be teaching the graduate-level course on it?

He becomes a professor of the game, of course. And that's exactly what head coach Dave Havern and the rest of the Shady Side Academy football coaching staff called Tim Giel.

"We call him 'The Professor' because he gets it. He knows all the positions on the field," said Havern, who even lists Giel in his cell phone under that nickname.

"In practice, he was a good mentor for the younger guys, a teacher. And in games, he would see something that would work schematically before we as coaches did."

The Professor earned his tenure this past year, and for his efforts in football, wrestling and, especially, baseball, he has been named the PG North Male High School Athlete of the Year.

Giel, who lives in the Deer Lakes School District, was a standout in all three sports, taking all-section honors in football, placing third at 215 pounds in the WPIAL wrestling tournament and, most impressively, serving as a dominant pitcher for an Indians baseball team that won the WPIAL Class AA championship.

"I feel like a broken record saying this to everyone ... but he's just an incredible kid with a lot of ability," Shady Side Academy baseball coach Bob Grandizio said. "He's obviously very intelligent -- going to Columbia -- but above all of that, he always just puts the team first.

"There are certain kids you have to teach about being part of a team and being a leader. He never had to be taught that."

Giel, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound right-hander, went 10-2 with a 1.08 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 772/3 innings this season, allowing opponents to hit only .157. He completed his career with a 22-8 record and 256 strikeouts and will pitch next season at Columbia, the defending Ivy League champion.

He also worked on his hitting through the years to the point he hit .387 with 25 RBIs this season.

Obviously a strong student, Giel is considering majoring in computer engineering, and while his education will be the top priority, certainly baseball will be a big part of his college life.

Grandizio said if it wasn't for the Ivy League education that scared off major league teams -- they know it'd be silly to pass up a degree from Columbia for a late-round signing bonus -- Giel would have been drafted last month.

"He's got such great talent, a good, strong lower half to his body," Grandizio said. "He has a dominant fastball, and he's worked on his curveball to make that an even better pitch."

In football, throughout his three-year career, Havern said he played offensive tackle, offensive guard, tight end, fullback, H-back, outside linebacker, nose guard, defensive tackle.

Giel was a big part of a Shady Side team that was undefeated until a loss to Aliquippa in the WPIAL semifinals. The Indians' defense, led by Giel and Roman SanDoval, among others, allowed only 48 points through 11 games.

An interesting part of Giel's athletic career is that his father, also named Tim, is one of the top wrestling coaches in the area and heads one of the most successful programs in the WPIAL at Shady Side Academy. Partially due to the younger Giel, the Indians won the WPIAL Class AA team title and lost in the PIAA championship match this season.

By his father's admission, wrestling was Giel's third love behind baseball and football.

"One of the things that I, as a father, always stressed is not doing just one sport," Giel said. "I never liked the idea of doing just one sport. When baseball was in season, it was baseball season. Same with observing the football and wrestling seasons."

The elder Giel called his son "A gym rat," noting that, as a coach, that was the place the two most got to spend time together when Tim Jr. was a youngster.

"You talk about kids that come along once every 10 or 15 years, this kid's a once-every-20-or-25-years kid," Havern said. "His sport's baseball, it's not even football, and he just did so much for us. Replacing him will be difficult, and he's a great kid, too.

"I think in the 125 years of Shady Side Academy, there might have been only a handful of guys like Tim Giel."