PA East/West Game

[Captain Kangaroo]

Scott Uziel (TE) played a lot. I didn't see any passes thrown his way...his blocking was pretty rough, as was the entire East teams...but builing an OL for one of these games, with only a week's preparation, is impossible. My gut feeling: He has the body to be a solid TE, but he definitely needs to redshirt.

Merce Poindexter played defense (DL). He's a big dude, height-wise. He looked pretty good. Wonder which side of the ball he'll be on @ Akron? With Cruz & Kasparek in the fold, the TE position is locked up for the next several years.

Kevin Garner looked the best of the bunch. A very strong kid and a solid tackler. I found an article on him with some interesting tidbits (see below).

Also, Can't's Eugene Jarvis looked very good. Can't fans are going to like him. Since the words describing Alex Allen @ the golf outing were "stallion" and "stud", and Kennedy's made great progress, losing Jarvis to Can't isn't a big deal. We're solid at RB.

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Titans' Garner will play as fooball all-star

All-Star games are sometimes forgettable contests. After all, they are exhibition games played by makeshift teams.

But Kevin Garner, a West Mifflin Area grad on his way to the University of Akron, is looking forward to Saturday's Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association East-West All-Star Game at Altoona's Mansion Park.

"I'm real excited. Since I'm redshirted this year I won't otherwise get a chance to play," he said.

Few doubt Garner's athletic ability. In addition to collecting 14 sacks from his left defensive end position last year to lead the Titans to the WPIAL Class AAA final, he also averaged 16.4 points a game as a power forward-center on the section-champion basketball team. He also ran the second leg on the 400-meter relay team that qualified for the PIAA Class AAA track finals, registering a low time of 42.5 seconds during the season. He has been timed at 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

Garner is 6 feet 21/2 and 230 pounds and is ranked among the top 50 players in the state by Rivals.com.

"I'm not the biggest player, but I can use my speed to get past the linemen," he said. "I was talking to one coach and he said I wasn't recruited heavily because of my size."

Garner received the most attention from Mid-American Conference schools, although West Virginia and Indiana also offered him scholarships. He chose Akron because of its coaching staff and facilities. The Zips will play in a new stadium by the time he's an upperclassman.

Garner was a four-year starter on the West Mifflin defensive line and by his junior season he was registering double-digit sack totals.

"He was our defensive leader," said West Mifflin coach Ray Braszo. "He was very tenacious and always going full speed."

In addition to his athletic ability, Garner credited his success to "my aggression; my hunger to get to the ball. I want every tackle I can get on the field."

That desire displayed itself in a 20-7 WPIAL quarterfinal playoff win against Canon-McMillan, where he sacked quarterback Doug Rheam twice. The play that stands out came in the closing seconds of West Mifflin's 10-6 win at Peters Township Oct. 8.

With the Indians deep in Titans territory in the closing seconds of the game, Garner broke through the offensive line and hit quarterback Tyler Porko as he released the ball. The football went straight up into the air and into Garner's hands for the clinching interception that evened West Mifflin's record at 4-4 and kept the Titans alive in the playoff hunt.