On February 5, four Shaler Area football players signed letters of intent to continue their football careers in college. Darin Mizgorski and Joey Impavido are headed to Mercyhurst University, Shayn Skelly will be attending Seton Hill, and Jake Miller is going to the University of Akron.
“I think I will be ready, but I still need to put a lot of work in the weight room. There’s a lot of grown men in college football,” Mizgorski said.
He said he chose Mercyhurst simply because he felt it was the perfect fit for him, as well as a fantastic scholarship opportunity.
“I wanted to get my education paid for by playing football…I didn’t want to add to the student debt crisis,” he said.
Shaler football coach Jim Ryan was extremely happy to see members of the class of 2020 signing to play in college.
“I absolutely expected this class to produce collegiate players,” Ryan said. “We had a lot of guys with post-high school aspirations…with the talent we had I expected several of them to compete at the next level.”
Ryan mentioned that he assisted them through the recruiting process.
“Recruiting is complicated…I have access to databases with college coaches as well as personal contacts in the collegiate world.”
He also said he put the players though some combine-style drills to prepare them for camps and tryouts.
Ryan mentioned many things that Shaler does to continue to produce elite athletes.
“We want to train kids from a multi-sport perspective…we also encourage kids to stay involved in school activities off the field.”
For those aspiring to be a college athlete, Ryan said to keep it simple, focus on the things that matter and don’t stress out so much.