Brentaro Yamane

Duquesne Football Freshmen from the WPIAL are excited to get started on The Bluff

East Allegheny alumnus Tyler Padezan signed his National Letter of Intent to play at Duquesne on February 5, 2020.

The Atlantic 10 has postponed all fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic. This affects some schools like Duquesne University. With the conference making the announcement the last week, all of the fall sports at Duquesne are postponed, except for one, and that sport is football. With Duquesne's football team being a part of the Northeast Conference, that means that as of now, they are still scheduled to play since they are not part of the Atlantic 10.

For Duquesne's football players, this is good news, especially for the incoming football freshmen that are excited to start playing college football in their lives. For this upcoming football season, Duquesne, as of now, has a total of 19 players on their roster that graduated high school in 2020. Nine of those freshmen players come from WPIAL schools. Seth Bolin (Pine-Richland), Sam Brown (Fox Chapel), Luke Harris (Central Catholic), Ian Kendall (Central Catholic), Ethan O'Neil (Pine-Richland), Tyler Padezan (East Allegheny), Hunter Ruokonen (Belle Vernon), Evan Smith (Seneca Valley), and Shane Stump (Thomas Jefferson) are the nine players from the Class of 2020 that are on Duquesne's football roster according to their website. Additional walk-ons could be added to the roster later.

Duquesne has been known for recruiting and offering football players from the WPIAL and City League in recent years. High school football players from around the Western Pennsylvania definitely appreciate that Duquesne is trying to recruit players that live basically in their own backyard. Duquesne also tried to recruit other WPIAL football players from the Class of 2020 such as Johnny Crise (Highlands), Jack Salopek (Norwin), George Padezanin (Montour), Tui Brown (Gateway), and Marques Watson-Trent (Blackhawk). However, those players decided to attend different schools.

For the nine WPIAL football players from the Class of 2020 that will play at Duquesne in the fall, they definitely have to feel excited to get to work. Belle Vernon graduate Hunter Ruokonen is one of Duquesne's recruits that is excited to get on to the field as a wide receiver for the Dukes.

"The environment [at Duquesne] was awesome from the first time I was on campus. It felt like home and the coaches made me feel like family. I’m extremely excited to get in and start working with the team," Ruokonen said.

For Ruokonen, after playing four years of high school football for Belle Vernon which involved playing against former Thomas Jefferson's quarterback Shane Stump, the two star players from rivals schools will finally be teammates and not rivals anymore. Ruokonen is planning to major in business at Duquesne and is looking forward to making new friends.

Seneca Valley alumnus Evan Smith will be a linebacker while on Duquesne's football team. Smith helped the Raiders get to the WPIAL 6A championship football game in 2018 and even though he did not win a WPIAL championship at Seneca Valley, he will be looking forward to trying to win a Northeast Conference championship at Duquesne.

"Duquesne was the perfect school for me because of how local it was and the football team and coaches. It also is a very good business school which I am majoring in. I’m hoping to learn how to adapt to the speed of the game as fast as I can and learn as much as the playbook as possible," Smith said.

With Smith being from Seneca Valley, he has played against some of the other freshmen Duquesne football players back in high school such as Ethan O'Neil and Seth Bolin from Pine-Richland and Luke Harris and Ian Kendall from Central Catholic. All five of these players will now be teammates.

"I’m actually really excited to be playing with the local guys because I feel like it could drive competition and make us a better team by pushing each other," Smith said.

Smith chose Duquesne over Lehigh, Dayton, Valparaiso, Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Tyler Padezan recorded 33 receptions for 721 yards in his senior year at East Allegheny last season. He is looking to produce those types of statistics at Duquesne and is also excited to get to work as a Duke. He will play wide receiver in college.

"Duquesne felt like a great fit both academically and football wise. I felt at home with the coaches and players," Padezan said.

Some of the things that Padezan wants to accomplish at Duquesne is to get a great education (as he will major in business), win an NEC championship and become an All-American. With Padezan attending East Allegheny in high school, he feels that his time there will help him achieve his college goals.

"East Allegheny shaped me into who I am today by making me tough and able to fight through adversity. It also has taught me how to become a leader and the importance of both the classroom and the field," Padezan said.

Pine-Richland's Seth Bolin will also be attending Duquesne and could not imagine himself attending any other school while playing college football.

"I chose Duquesne because it is not only the city I know and love, but also because the academics and athletic programs are spectacular and it will set me up for greatness," Bolin said.

Bolin will major in Law with a minor of business. At Duquesne, there is a Pre-Law program in which is for exceptional students seeking to complete their undergraduate studies in three years so as to begin Duquesne's Law School in their fourth year. Bolin will be the first football player in school history to follow the Pre-Law path. It's crazy to think that Bolin is on the track to be the first football player ever in Duquesne's history to attend Duquesne's Law school.

Bolin recorded 27 receptions for 300 yards and scored three touchdowns in his senior year at Pine-Richland in 2019. As he joins the Dukes football team for the fall, he will play with his other high school teammates from Pine-Richland in Ethan O'Neil, Michael Dorundo, and Jacob Gill. Bolin has also been developing relationships with his new coaches during the pandemic.

"It feels great to compete at the next level with some of my already close friends and teammates, we look at it like as a whole new challenge for us. I'm excited for the bond we will continue to create being in the locker room together," Bolin said.

"So far, I have become especially close with Coach Luke Smith and Coach Kory Gribbin. I see myself becoming very close with these two coaches over the next four years."

The Duquesne football freshmen from the WPIAL are definitely excited to get on the football field as they are hoping to create new memories in their lives that they could perhaps cherish and reminisce about forever.

Brentaro Yamane: bkyamane@gmail.com and Twitter/Instagram @BYHilton13