Corey Thomas Jr.'s Transfer

About somewhere in the middle of March or perhaps the end of March Central Catholic's wide receiver and defensive back star Corey Thomas Jr. transferred as he left Central Catholic and moved to Penn Hills. I do not know why Corey left Central to go to Penn Hills but it was good that he did. According to Mike White, high school sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he lived in Penn Hills for a number of years and he is friends with some of the football players who currently attend Penn Hills.

Penn Hills was 3-3 in their section last year as they had an 8-4 record overall during the regular season. They defeated Bethel Park in the first round of the playoffs 30-28 but lost in the next round to Central Catholic 17-8. Usually in sports whenever an athlete loses to a team that athlete might go to the team that beat that athlete. Like Kevin Durant for example. Whenever the Warriors defeated the Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals Durant decided to leave the Thunder in the offseason and go play for the Warriors. But it's different for Corey Thomas Jr. as when he was on Central Catholic he defeated Penn Hills and now during this offseason he wants to go play for the team that he already beat.

Penn Hills perhaps needed a couple more players in order to get a WPIAL 6A football championship and Corey Thomas Jr. was a big addition to the team. Put yourself in Corey's position. Corey had an opportunity to leave a catholic school that cost a lot of money and he did which was good because catholic schools a lot of money. Corey would have had to pay $12,300 next year if he stayed for his senior year at Central Catholic. But now he does not have to pay that money.

Corey Thomas Jr. is a WPIAL champion as during his sophomore year his Central Catholic football team defeated Seneca Valley 42-7 in the 6A football WPIAL championship game on November 18th 2016 which took place at Heinz Field. Thomas was trying to win another WPIAL championship for Central Catholic as they took on Pine-Richland in November but Phil Jurkovec and the Rams were just too dominant that Central Catholic did not have a chance and the Rams won by a score of 42-7 a score that Central Catholic was familiar to hearing.

Corey is a very tall wide receiver as he is 6 feet and 3 inches. What I like about Corey is how much of a deep bomb threat he is. A lot of times when Central Catholic's quarterback Troy Fisher would throw to Corey, Corey would always be down the field because he is open very often. Corey's height helps him as he is able to jump over defenders while on offense. If a defender is ever in front of Corey, Corey is very good at sticking his hands in front of the defender while he is behind the defender and grabbing the football to make receptions. What I really like about Corey on defense is that he tackles aggressively and coaches love to see that. I would even also say that he does a good job catching the ball over his shoulder.

Last football season Corey had 11 receptions for 275 yards and caught 4 touchdowns. During his sophomore year he only had 1 reception for 5 yards but that is okay because all the colleges that have gave him offers like Indiana, Buffalo, Bowling Green and Robert Morris want him to play safety which is his strong position compared to wide receiver even though I like him playing wide receiver. During Corey's freshman year he played football at Serra Catholic high school as he had 6 receptions for 63 yards and scored one touchdown.

Corey will definitely start at safety for Penn Hills next year and he has a quarterback under center who is extremely good as he is ready to make noise next year and go far in the postseason in Hollis Mathis who will be a senior next year as well. Mathis threw for 2,435 yards last season and threw 27 touchdowns. This is nice for Mathis as he has another deep threat option. Penn Hills two best wide receivers in Daequan Hardy and Dante Cephas will both be seniors next year which is nice that Penn Hills will have them for one more year and adding Corey Thomas Jr. to that wide receiver squad is very nice as he will also be a star on defense. Mathis will enjoy having a deep threat in Corey. If Corey stayed at Central Catholic their quarterback might have been Jack Kenny or Vinny Tassari who both might be good but don't have the experience under center like Hollis does. It is too bad that Troy Fisher will be graduating this year at Central Catholic. So perhaps Corey wanted to play with a quarterback that he knows that will be probably good in his senior year instead of staying at Central Catholic and maybe realizing that it might be a rebuilding season for them. When you watch Corey you can tell he wants to win and Penn Hills goal is now to win football WPIAL and PIAA championships next year.