Another WPa QB on Zips Radar

[Captain Kangaroo]

QB poised to achieve yardage milestone

Friday, August 19, 2005

By Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tyler Huether considers himself just another teenager. His hobbies are simply "hanging out" with his friends and playing video games. And how's this for plain? His favorite food is salad.

But put a football in Huether's right hand, tell him to throw it and suddenly he's anything but ordinary.

Huether is a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior at Penn-Trafford High School who whizzes a football around with uncanny accuracy and gets big results. With a good senior season, Huether will put himself into some fancy company.

One in a series on top high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

He split time at quarterback two years ago and was No. 1 last year. In those two years, he has thrown for 3,200 yards. He needs 1,800 this season to become only the eighth quarterback in WPIAL history to throw for 5,000.

The others are Sto-Rox's Adam DiMichele, Steel Valley's Luke Getsy, North Hills' Eric Kasperowicz, Seton-LaSalle's Bill Stull, West Allegheny's Tyler Palko, Penn Hills' Anthony Morelli and Penn-Trafford's Tony Zimmerman.

"There's some pressure on me because people are going to expect the same things I did last year," Huether said. "I just have to do what I normally do."

If last season was normal, then Huether will get the 1,800 and surpass 5,000 yards. In 2004, he reached 1,800 yards in the ninth game of the season. He finished 127 of 209 (61 percent) for 2,209 yards. For his career, he is 195 of 331 (59 percent).

"I'm just hoping that we have an offensive line that can give him some time to throw," Penn-Trafford coach Art Tragesser said.

Graduation hit Penn-Trafford hard on the offensive line.

"We're not going to be the biggest team, but we'll be strong and fast," Huether said. "The line is still getting in the swing of everything, but I think we should be good to go by the first game."

Penn-Trafford opens against Seneca Valley in a game that provides an interesting quarterback matchup. Seneca Valley's Kevan Smith played only two games last year because of an injury, but has made a verbal commitment to Pitt, accepting a scholarship in the summer.

Huether's only scholarship offer is from Temple.

"Tyler is intelligent, has a nice arm, is a better runner than people think and just has a passion for the game," Tragesser said. "He has everything you'd want in a quarterback."

Division I colleges wish Huether was a little taller.

"The knock on me is pretty much my height," he said. "Colleges think you need a tall quarterback to see. But all you need is windows to see. I know I'm up there [with the best quarterbacks in the WPIAL]. I just have to do what I normally do this season -- and see what happens from there."

Akron, Toledo, Louisville, North Carolina State, Cincinnati and West Virginia are showing interest.

Tragesser believes anyone wondering about Huether should simply watch last year's game against Central Catholic when he was 20 of 32 for 309 yards.

"Throwing for 300 yards against the best team in the state speaks volumes about him," Tragesser said. "Every college is looking for that 6-4 quarterback, but there's only so many of them. I think a lot of colleges are waiting to see who they get. Then they'll start to come around again after some of these quarterbacks pick their schools.

"Whoever gets Tyler is going to be very lucky because he's going to be very productive for some offense."