Rodney Gallagher Is The Next Big WPIAL Star

Rodney Gallagher puts his hands on hips while playing basketball for the North Coast Blue Chips, an AAU basketball team.

Source: SLAM

In the 2018-19 WPIAL Boys basketball season, Laurel Highlands had a section record of 2-10 and an overall record of 4-17. That team lost their first seven games of the season and did not make it to the WPIAL playoffs. This was such a bad season for Laurel Highlands compared to the year before in the 2017-18 season.

In the 2017-18 WPIAL Boys basketball season, Laurel Highlands had a section record of 8-4 and an overall record 14-9. The team made it to the WPIAL playoffs that year and lost to the first round to West Allegheny by a score of 63-54. Bryce Laskey was one of the leaders of that 2017-18 Laurel Highlands team as he averaged 33.3 points per game in the regular season. He was ranked second in points per game in the WPIAL that season. Laskey would graduate from Laurel Highlands in 2018 and currently plays NCAA Division 1 Men's basketball at Saint Francis University.

California Area basketball player, Malik Ramsey, was also on that 2017-18 Laurel Highlands Boys basketball team as a sophomore. Ramsey transferred out of Laurel Highlands before his junior year of high school in the Summer of 2018. He averaged 25.2 points per game in the regular season (6th in the WPIAL) in his junior year at California last season. Imagine if Ramsey stayed in Laurel Highlands and did not transfer to California. Perhaps, Ramsey would have helped Laurel Highlands get more wins and make it to the playoffs last season.

Laurel Highlands is going to have a lot of new faces on their team next season as six of their seniors have graduated high school. Their varsity team, last season, consisted of only nine players as the three other returning players are juniors. Perhaps, there might be other students at Laurel Highlands that will try out for the team next season.

On the bright side for Laurel Highlands, they will have possibly one of the biggest young basketball stars in the WPIAL next season in Rodney Gallagher. Gallagher will be a freshman at Laurel Highlands next season as he stands 5'11" and is a guard. Gallagher is a player that knows how to control the pace of the game and can make the players around him better. Laurel Highlands will probably expect Gallagher to shoot a lot of points for the team and he probably understands that. When you watch him play, you can see that it is hard to keep him out of the lane and can facilitate in half court.

Gallagher has played AAU basketball with LeBron James's son, Bronny Jr. As you can see in the picture below, Gallagher has met LeBron James before. Gallagher is wearing the number 34 in the picture.

Source: Herald-Standard

According to "Naismith National Youth All American Report", Rodney is ranked the 21st best Boys basketball player in the Class of 2023. That is pretty good for Gallagher as his AAU teammate, Bronny Jr., is ranked 1st in the Class of 2023.

Do not be surprised if a lot of people and college scouts go to Laurel Highlands Boys basketball games next year because of Gallagher on the team. I bet a lot of you cannot wait to see him play next season as well.

I am telling you right now that Gallagher will be one of the next superstars in the WPIAL and if you are a big WPIAL basketball fan, you must watch at least one Laurel Highlands Boys basketball game next season. Perhaps one day, you'll see Gallagher at the Petersen Events playing for a WPIAL championship.

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