This is not supposed to be a great year for high school football recruits in Pennsylvania, but it might not be as bad of a senior crop in Western Pennsylvania as some "experts" think.

"If you compare it to three years ago when [Jeannette's] Terrell Pryor and [Aliquippa's] Jonathan Baldwin were seniors ... well that group was a 10. This year's is a seven or a seven-and-a-half," Metro Index Scouting director Joe Butler said.

There are a lot of reasons for that. The major one is that high school recruiting goes in cycles. Not every senior class has a Pryor and a Baldwin, who both could end up being selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

It will be a different story next year when Hopewell running back Rushel Shell and Chartiers Valley quarterback Wayne Capers are seniors. But what about this season?

Well, it says something about the WPIAL/City League when the top senior in the state is from Oil City. Tight end Ben Koyack, who is 6 feet 5 and 230 pounds, has verbally committed to Notre Dame.

Butler is quick to point out that Western Pennsylvania, once the garden of outstanding linemen such as Bill Fralic (Penn Hills), Jimbo Covert (Freedom), Jim Sweeney (Seton-LaSalle), Greg Meisner (Valley), Jeff Baldwin (Aliquippa) and Greg Christy (Freeport), just to name a few, doesn't do so well in that area.

"There was just one offensive lineman from this area who was on an NFL roster last year and that was Reggie Wells [from South Park]," Butler said. "There were a couple on practice squads, but he was it. We used to turn out NFL linemen in the 1980s like it was nothing.

"The loss of population plays a part in it. The eastern part of the state they're building high schools while we're tearing them down or closing them."

Butler said the senior group of quarterbacks is OK -- South Fayette's Christian Brumbaugh is probably the best of the bunch -- and added the list of running backs is a little better and includes Bethel Park's Bre Ford, Belle Vernon's Matt Green and North Allegheny's Alex Papson.

There are a few good linemen -- Montour's Austin Heter, Aliquippa's Zach Hooks, McKeesport's Delvon Simmons and Farrell's Rob Trudo -- and a few outstanding linebacker/defensive ends in McKeesport's Branden Jackson, Gateway's Armstead Williams, Clairton's Desimon Green, Woodland Hills' Ejuan Price and Mohawk's Matt Vogel.

But the group that leads the way is that of defensive backs. It includes West Allegheny's Mike Caputo, Gateway's Dondi Kirby, who is out with a knee injury, Nick Kwiatkoski from Bethel Park and Lafayette Pitts from Woodland Hills.

Then there is Darius Patton, a 5-9, 165-pound senior who plays wide receiver and cornerback for Poland Seminary just across the state line in Ohio. He grew up in the Penn Hills School District.

Lanny Frattare, who did the play-by-play on Pirates' games for 33 years, returns to the radio airwaves -- and the Internet -- Friday night on the MSA Sports Network.

MSA is the Internet broadcast home for WPIAL athletics, but also does at least three and sometimes four football games on area radio stations in the fall. Frattare, who has been working as an advisor in the communications department at Waynesburg University, will team with long-time MSA member Bob Orkwis Friday on KQV-AM (1410) for the call of the Upper St. Clair at Shaler Area game.

MSA will also have radio broadcasts of the Pine-Richland at Mt. Lebanon game (KDKA-FM, The Fan, 93.7), West Mifflin at South Fayette (WJAS-AM 1320) and Chartiers Valley at Montour (Fox Sports 970 AM).

"My mom knows nothing about sports, but she knows who Lanny Frattare is," said Don Rebel, operations manager for the MSA Sports Network. "Having him as part of our team can't help but boost what we do."

What has Rebel excited about Frattare joining the MSA team is the enthusiasm the long-time voice of the Pirates has shown for doing high school games.

"I'm excited by the fact of how excited he is," Rebel said.

It's interesting how this all came about. The Waynesburg University student-run radio station broadcast some high school games toward the end of last season and wanted to do some playoff games. Since MSA has the broadcast/Internet rights to all WPIAL playoff games Frattare got in touch with Rebel.

After the football season Frattare called Rebel and thanked him for his help and said he would talk to Rebel over the summer.

"At that time I said, 'We'll see about you coming on board with us.' We talked about the station and he said, 'I really think I'd like to do that.' That's how it started."

Rebel added that Frattare has shown an interest in also calling high school basketball and baseball games for MSA.

"I think Lanny and Bob will be a strong team," Rebel said. "But what's crazy is that after this week they won't be together for the next three weeks. Lanny has a commitment next week and Bob has weddings to go to the following two weeks."

Stay tuned.

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