In the past, Brendon Felder had always viewed the University of North Carolina as a basketball school. But for the future, Felder plans to have a football career with the Tar Heels.

Felder, a Gateway High School senior, made a verbal commitment to North Carolina yesterday while on a visit to the Chapel Hill, N.C., campus. Felder (6 feet, 170 pounds) plays running back, receiver and defensive back for Gateway, but was recruited by North Carolina to play slotback.

"To tell you the truth, North Carolina was never on my mind growing up because they were always basketball," Felder said. "But I started to look at them the last few years for football."

Felder's other top choices were Pitt, Boston College, Maryland and Illinois. All offered scholarships.

"I don't think I visited another school that came together like North Carolina -- from the coaches, to the players, to the alumni, to the fans," he said.

This is Felder's first football season at Gateway. In December, he transferred from St. John's Prep near Boston to Gateway. Felder has family in the Monroeville and Homestead areas.

North Carolina started recruiting Felder this spring. He credited Gateway coach Terry Smith for getting him noticed by Division I colleges.

"To tell you the truth, if I didn't come here [to Gateway], I don't think I would've had one scholarship offer," Felder said. "That's how good Terry is. He gets your name out there, he gets you to college camps, he gets you to 7 on 7 things. I give credit to coach Terry for all of this."

Felder has noticed a difference in WPIAL football and the football played in the Boston area.

"I would say it's a big difference," he said. "I think it's a lot faster. I'm not trying to take anything away from the athletes in Boston, but there are definitely a lot better athletes here."

The status of Ringgold coach Lloyd Price is still unclear, but Price missed his second game this past Friday when the Rams played Southmoreland.

The school recently suspended Price from coaching for undisclosed reasons, but neither Price nor school officials are saying why because it is a personnel issue.

"I can't really comment on anything," Price said.

Price also wouldn't say if he would be back for this week's game, but he is hopeful the issue will be resolved.

In what some coaches were viewing as a landmark case, a former Kentucky high school coach was found not guilty of reckless homicide in connection with an incident last year when a player collapsed at a practice when the team was put through a series of sprints on a hot summer day. The player died a few days later.

David Jason Stinson, 37, was charged after Max Gilpin died of heat stroke, sepsis and multiple organ failure. Stinson's lawyers contended the death was an accident. It was a rare criminal prosecution of a coach in a player's heat-related death.

Kevin Telles of Garden Grove High in California collapsed on the field and died Sept. 11. He is the second high school player to die while playing this season. Two others, ages 13 and 14, from the St. Louis area died earlier this season after collapsing at practice.

• The Penn-Trafford vs. Hempfield game Friday night turned into the Ryan Express. Three different players with the first name Ryan scored touchdowns -- Penn-Trafford's Ryan Austin and Ryan Burger, and Hempfield's Ryan Hayden.

• Covering high school football games can be dangerous for sports writers. Lloyd Engen, the sports editor at the Alamosa (Colo.) Valley Courier, sustained a fractured pelvis after he was hit by three players while taking pictures from the sideline.

• McKeesport had eight touchdowns against Connellsville and the average length of those scores was 43.9 yards.

Maybe once or twice a season comes a weekend filled with big games. This is one of those weekends.

Four games match teams ranked in the top five by the Post-Gazette in their respective classifications. Overall, four games match undefeated teams -- Chartiers Valley vs. West Mifflin, New Castle vs. Hopewell, South Fayette vs. Sto-Rox and Fort Cherry vs. Serra Catholic.

A few other games are big, including Bethel Park vs. Woodland Hills, Erie McDowell vs. McKeesport, Mt. Lebanon vs. Shaler and Perry vs. Peabody in the City League. Also, FSN Pittsburgh's Thursday night game between Central Catholic and Upper St. Clair is still interesting even though it lost some of its luster when Central Catholic lost to Mt. Lebanon.