The Most Popular WPIAL Athlete Is....
Throughout this 2017-18 school year in the WPIAL there have been a lot of great athletes that have taken their game to the next level and have helped their sports teams go far. Out of all 12 athletes I have pictured in the gallery I am going to try as best as I can to explain why out of these 12 certain athletes one of them might be the most popular athlete in the whole WPIAL.
Let's start out with Pine-Richland Rams football and basketball player Andrew Kristofic. Kristofic is very popular as he is a very strong lineman and a very big basketball player. Because of Kristofic's size as a lineman he recived so many offers from so many colleges such as Clemson, Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oregon, Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia and even Wisconsin. So many high school football players from all around the country would die to play at one of those schools and they probably would do it for free. Kristofic however chose Notre Dame and he will reunite with his quarterback Phil Jurkovec in 2019. Kristofic is 6 feet 6 inches and weighs 265 pounds and he was that tall and weighed just about the same maybe even a little less during the summer of his freshman year in 2015.
Aliquippa's cornerback and wide receiver Kwantel Raines could be considered the most popular WPIAL athlete because he is the leader of the Quips and is just flat out good. When you look at Kwantel you see someone who looks pretty athletic and seems like a person that always seems to be focused and determined to win games. When Kwantel announced that he was going to go to West Virginia the Mountaineers student section was nuts as they felt like someone special is coming to WV. Kwantel knew the legacy the Quips have and he wanted to be part of that legacy and he was when the Quips won the WPIAL championship in 2015 which was Kwantel's sophomore year. Perhaps Kwantel might get into the NFL as a cornerback like Darrelle Revis did. Revis also went to Aliquippa.
Joey Porter Jr. is very popular up in North Allegheny because of his father being Joey Porter who was an extremley scary and good linebacker when he was with the Steelers. Porter Jr. is built differently than his dad as he is much skinnier but faster and better at catching the football rather than his father. Porter Jr. and his dad however are the same height as they are both 6 feet and 3 inches. Porter Jr. lived in Pittsburgh while his dad was still on the Steelers but then when his dad played for the Dolphins and the Cardinals Porter Jr. and his family might have played lived in Miami and Arizona probably but I am not certain on that. But when Porter was hired by the Steelers as a coach in 2014 Joey Porter Jr. was back in Pittsburgh and he probably thought thought he was going to play high school football at one of the schools in the WPIAL. When Porter Jr.'s dad got the job by the Steelers as Outside Linebackers coach in 2015 their whole family knew that Pittsburgh was going to be their home for a good while and they were not going to move. Porter Jr. probably became as good of an athlete that he is today because he knew that he was going to stay at one high school in North Allegheny to achieve success in football and not move to another while he is in high school.
Austin Hendrick of West Allegheny is considered one of the best high school baseball players in his grade in the whole country. Hendrick, a sophomore, has already commited to Mississippi State University to play baseball. It's good that Hendrick made his college decision so now all he can focus on is not just enhancing his skills on the baseball field but focusing on winning a WPIAL and state title for the West Allegheny Indians. The man has a lot of Instagram followers as he has over 8,000 followers. Hendrick looks very mature for his age and that might be a good thing. The fact that during batting practices he hits 8 balls out of the field in a row shows how good he is and once people see that in person then Hendrick's popularity will increase since not a lot of high schoolers can do that.
Megan McConnell of Chartiers Valley is the sister of professional basketball player TJ McConnell who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers. She led the Colts in PPG this season and already has an offer from Robert Morris Univeristy. She matured a whole lot from her sophomore which was this year to her freshman year which was last year. She learned not to get other schools student sections in her head as she admitted that she did last year. Just the fact that she is a McConnell is going to make her popular instantly since that whole family basically eats, breathes and lives basketball. She won a WPIAL championship her freshman year with the Colts and is tied with her two brothers TJ and Matty in WPIAL championship wins with 1. Megan is looking to have more WPIAL championships than her brothers as she has two more years to pass both of them.
Mason Gonzalez is a senior at North Allegheny this year and will go to Stanford next year to continue his swimming career. I have seen him swim backstrokes, freestyles, breaststrokes and butterflies and he is pretty good. Gonzalez has just gotten a lot of attention recently winning WPIAL titles in swimming and just breaking a whole lot of swimming records. Stanford is considered a very well academic school and the fact that he is going there proves how much of a smart person he is. He is probably well liked at school since he is tall, athletic, popular and probably a well-likeable person. When Gonzalez was interviewed by The Trib Live High School Sports Network he seemed very mature and he smiled a lot. Perhaps because he won a swimming event or something like that.
Ethan Morton of Butler is a sophomore and is just a very good basketball player. Morton does not let the fame disrupt his life as he continues being friends with his Butler classmates. I notice that very good high school athletes from all over the country do not focus on having strong friendships with their fellow classmates as they only use people in their school to gain things for their own personal needs and thing they deserve it because they are good at a sport. Looking at Ethan, even when he graduates high school I still think he is still going to be in contact with a lot of his friends even if he makes the NBA or not.
Robby Carmody is a very high candidate in my opinion for being the most popular athlete in the WPIAL because of the leadership he brings to the table in every one of Mars basketball games. He just scores so many points and just drives to the rim so aggresively while scoring at the same time. The man is super popular because of how good he is at basketball that I feel I could argue how he has been the best WPIAL Boys' basketball player in the 2000s. Robby will be attending Notre Dame next year as he will be looking to turn the basketball program at ND around. I've compared Carmody to LeBron James because how much they dominate all by themselves and the way they bring leadership to their teams. Carmody will play basketball under almost any conditions even pnuemonia.
Amani Johnson of East Allegheny is only 5 feet and 5 inches tall but is arguably the best girls WPIAL basketball player as she averages 29 points per game. She is an example of how it does not matter how tall you are and if you can play basketball you can find a way to play the game a good. The fact that she is short and good at basketball is what gets her attention by a lot of the media. She is continue playing basketball at Kennesaw State next year.
Phil Jurkovec of the Pine-Richland Rams is not just popular in the WPIAL but the whole country as he is dominant in both football and basketball and chose to continue his football career in college as he will go to Notre Dame next year. Perhaps Jurkovec and Carmody can be roomates in college. Like let's be real now it would be pretty cool to see the best football player in Pennsylvania and the bext basketball player in Pennsylvania room with each other in college. The fact that Phil had to fill in the shoes of Ben DiNucci and even have a better athletic career than DiNucci shows how much of a hardworker Phil is and how he is not afraid of pressure whatsoever. Jurkovec's Twitter is even verified because of how popular is and how much of a good athlete is.
Ayden Owens of North Allegheny is a very terrific runner as he is heading to the University of Southern California next year to continue his track & field career. The dude just looks so built and strong that he must seriously just works out in the gym and train for track events all the time because that is just how good he is. You look at him and you think of an athlete that wants to play at the professional level. Ayden has broken a lot of records especially in indoor track. Ayden is popular because he is a hard worker if you can tell and looks like a person that you would listen to because he is well...charming.
And then finally you got Amante Britt from Woodland Hills who seriously found a way to turn Woodland Hills to a good basketball school. Amante gets a lot of attention and is very popular because he is a short basketball player who is better than a lot of basketball players in the whole WPIAL. Amante was part of The Fab 5 this year which is the five best basketball players in the WPIAL and city league schools put together thought of by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. What Amante has a good sense of is fashion as he wears different outfits as you can see on his instagram. If Amante can't continue his basketball career in the professional league he should consider being a model as he would be a good one.
There are probably other WPIAL athletes you might say deserve to be in the conversation of most popular but out of the athletes I talked about today I hope you can see why those 12 in particular deserved to be in the conversation as we will never know as citizens living in the WPIAL area who is the most popular WPIAL athlete in all of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League. It's just something to think about.