Underclassmen to watch
Largely because the YAIAA was fairly young across the board last season, there are a good number of seniors with experience leading the way for football teams across York and Adams counties this fall. Especially among the league's top teams, seniors are leading the way.
Nonetheless, among this senior-laden crowd of playmakers, a few underclassmen have emerged in the week's first season as players to keep an eye on not just this year, but for seasons beyond.
1) Soph. QB Adam Sentz, York Catholic: Varsity debuts don't get much better than this. Sentz splashed onto the scene at Pius X on Saturday, rushing for 212 yards - including the game-winning 63-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter - during York Catholic's season-opening 35-28 win over Pius X on the road. Sentz also threw for 135 yards on 12-of-21 passing in the victory. He ran the offense as York Catholic scored 28 unanswered points and came back from three touchdowns down. Not too shabby.
2) Jr. RB Bobby Bailey, Spring Grove: Moving into the starting running back role after primarily seeing action on special teams as a sophomore, Bailey (pictured above) was a dependable offensive weapon for the Rockets throughout their 26-13 win over Kennard-Dale. Bailey scored three touchdowns on the ground -- including two in the game's final minutes -- in addition to gaining 155 yards on 19 carries. He broke multiple tackles on almost all of his carries, displaying a toughness that should serve him and the Rockets well this season.
3) Soph. RB Steffante Doby, William Penn: The Bearcats have a stable of talented wide receivers and dependable quarterback Jordan Davis under center and will air it out plenty this season. Even when they run the ball, rugged fullback/running back Brandon Walker is back and willing to effectively carry the load. But when it comes to finding a speedy ballcarier in the backfield, coach Matt Ortega believes Doby is his man. He was the leading rusher for the Bearcats in last week's 49-13 romp, averaging more than seven yards per carry and scoring two touchdowns.
4) Jr. QB Alex George, West York: He gained some experience last season filling in for an injured Dan Haverstock. Now George has the starting gig under center for a West York squad full of speed, experience and talent. George may not have blown anyone away with his performance during the Bulldogs' 28-3 victory at West York, but he managed the offense well and connected on a 50-yard touchdown pass to Nate Jacobs for one of the West York touchdowns.
5) Pretty much the entire Northeastern team: There are only six seniors listed on the entire varsity roster for the Bobcats, mainly because this year's senior class was unable to play when sophomores because Northeastern only had a freshman team. They could play as juniors on JV, but most of them had moved on to something else at that point. It means that the Bobcats are extremely young, and players like Patrick Hilbert, Cody Santiago, Shawn Hansel, Roger Eaton and Justin Michalak will all have at least two full years to play on the Northeastern varsity.
Is there a player not up here that deserves mentioning? Is someone getting overhyped? Let your voice be heard in the comments section.
Terry Waltimyer · September 6, 2008 8:57 PM
Cody Waltimyer from York Suburban. Last year as a Sophmore he was in the top ten rushing.1st team outside linrbacker,2nd team running back.This year as a junior,116 yds against D-town, 200+ against Columbia 6 tds. He should be on your list.
Margie Keefer · September 6, 2008 10:01 PM
100% agree with Terry Waltimyer's post. Not only should Cody have been listed as one of the top underclassmen to watch, he also deserved to be named one of the top performers in both wks 1 and 2! Let's get a grip here and give credit where credit is due! I just can't help but notice that some of these kids that work really hard for their accomplishments are often overlooked and it's the same few players every week that appear in the top performers list. I think this is sad and maybe we have some bias here.