Penn Hills Athlete: Corey Thomas Jr.

School: Penn Hills Sport: Football Position: Free Safety and Wide Receiver Class: Senior Claim To Fame: He won a WPIAL 6A Football Championship with Central Catholic in 2016. In his first three years in the WPIAL, he has a total of 18 receptions for 343 yards as a wide receiver. He has gotten a lot of attention from colleges because of his skills as a Free Safety. He has received offers from colleges such as The University Of Indiana, Ball State University, The University Of Buffalo and other colleges.

What are the expectations for Penn Hills this upcoming football season?

"We just want to come out every week and play our best football. We need to make sure we stay discipline and really focus on the small details to allow us to be great. If we do that, everything else will take care of itself."

What do you think of the new PIAA transfer rule?

"I’m personally not a fan of the new rule. There are so many reasons somebody could need to transfer to a different school and for them not to be allowed to play in playoffs doesn’t make much sense to me."

Do you have a favorite SpongeBob SquarePants episode? If you do, could you either explain what happened in the episode or the title of the episode?

"For my favorite episode I’m going to have to go with "Pizza Delivery". The song SpongeBob sings while delivering pizzas was always in my head when I was young."

Between, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, which social media is your favorite to go on?

"I’d have to go with Snapchat, but that’s a tough one."

If you had the number one overall pick in a Fantasy Football draft for this upcoming NFL season, who would you choose?

"Todd Gurley III. He does so many things for the Rams offense; he’ll get me a good 15-20 points at least each week."

According to your football coach Jon LeDonne, you have lived at Penn Hills for a number of years. How does it feel to play high school football with other players that live in the same school district as you, for the first time?

"I’m so excited; I honestly can’t wait. We have so much talent on our team and just practicing with these guys, I can already tell it’s going to be an exciting year for us. And I feel playing with them is going to take my game to a whole new level."

What is your favorite video game?

"NCAA Football 14. I still play that game today with all the guys."

It's considered hard to win a WPIAL championship in any sport. It seems especially hard to win a WPIAL championship at two different schools. You won a football WPIAL championship with Central Catholic in 2016. How much would it mean to you if you could win a WPIAL championship at Penn Hills this season and be known as one of the few athletes in the WPIAL to find a way to win WPIAL championships at two different schools?

"It would mean a lot to me if I was able to do that. It would mean so much for our community to be able to win a WPIAL championship. And for every senior the goal is to go out with a championship."

What is something that people would be surprised to know about you?

"I actually didn’t start playing football until 8th grade; I was always a baseball player. And I didn’t start playing safety until I was in 10th grade."