Replacing Jamie Diven

Jamie Diven (17) runs into the end zone for a touchdown during a South Fayette Lions regular season football game last season. Diven was the starting quarterback for the Lions in 2018.

Source: QB Hit List

Former South Fayette Lions quarterback, Jamie Diven, just graduated high school on Friday June 7th 2019. He is getting ready to play NCAA Men’s Division 2 Football at West Liberty University in West Virginia. Diven had one heck of a senior season as the quarterback of the Lions this past season. Diven made a big name for himself and won a WPIAL championship with the Lions back in November 2018. This past season, he was ranked second in the entire WPIAL in passing yards (3,211), tied for first in passing touchdowns (45) and ranked third in passing completions (189). Diven played his first three years of high school football at West Allegheny; but he didn’t get much playing time to ball out, like he did at South Fayette. Perhaps, Diven just simply played better under Joe Rossi’s (head football coach of South Fayette) system compared to Bob Palko’s (former head coach of West Allegheny) system. With Diven out of South Fayette, the question now is, “Who will South Fayette’s starting quarterback be in 2019?” In 2017, the Lions starting quarterback was Drew Saxton and in 2018 Diven was the starting quarterback for the team. So, the Lions will now have three different quarterbacks in three years. We just don’t know who will start as quarterback for the Lions next year. Some possible candidates to start for the Lions next year is rising senior Henry Lex and rising junior Naman Alemada. Both of these guys played a little bit of quarterback in varsity games last season. Henry and Naman only played last season when South Fayette would have a big fourth quarter lead over whoever they were playing that week. As a result, the Lions would let Diven rest and not have him play minutes that he did not need to in order to prevent injuries. No matter if it is Henry or Naman, or someone else starting quarterback for the Lions next season, that player needs to know that they have to fill in the shoes of Jamie Diven. Diven played the best of football of his life last season; if the Lions want to win another WPIAL championship next season then the starting quarterback for the team will need to step up like Diven did. South Fayette’s head coach, Joe Rossi, is a veteran when it comes to coaching high school football and he will find a way to turn Henry, Naman or someone else into a star quarterback next season. We all cannot wait to watch South Fayette football next season as they will try to repeat as WPIAL 4A football champions.

BY Hilton: bythebossandgoat@gmail.com and Twitter @BYHilton13