Rodney Gallagher Could be one of the Greatest WPIAL Athletes Ever

Rodney Gallagher is a star on the football field and on the basketball court.

Multi-sport high school athletes that are sensational in both football and basketball might be rare in some parts of the United States, but it is not rare in the Western Pennsylvania area.

From Terrelle Pryor (Jeannette) to Darrelle Revis (Aliquippa) to Phil Jurkovec (Pine-Richland), and even to Malik Hooker (New Castle), they are all examples of former local high school athletes that were stars on their school’s football and boys basketball teams. Arguably, all four players could go down in history to be considered “The Greats” when it comes to playing and succeeding in both sports in the Western Pennsylvania Athletic League (WPIAL). Even though, they all had opportunities to play college basketball, they all decided to pursue to play college football as Pryor, Revis, and Hooker all played in the NFL, and Jurkovec is currently the quarterback at Boston College.

Rodney Gallagher, a 6-foot sophomore from Laurel Highlands could be considered to be on the list of great WPIAL football and basketball players after he graduates from high school in 2023.

Going into high school, a lot of people from around the nation expected Rodney to be a star on the basketball court due to the talent that he has. Also, the fact that Rodney was playing on the same Amateur Athletic Union basketball team (North Coast Blue Chips) with LeBron James’ son, Bronny, had to indicate to people that if Rodney was good enough to play on the same team as Bronny, then Rodney could potentially be a star.

When Rodney got into high school, he continued to show people how talented and special he is in playing basketball. Not only are his ball skills, athleticism, versatility, speed and coordination impressive to people, but his ability to make clutch plays is what gets him the attention and recognition that he deserves.

As a freshman, Rodney helped Laurel Highlands to win its first WPIAL boys basketball championship since 1968 as the Mustangs defeated the Mars Fighting Planets 52-51 in the 2020 WPIAL 5A Championship. In the title game, Gallagher scored 24 points and made two free throws with 4.8 seconds left in the game. Also, as a freshman, he averaged 22.7 points per game, 3.8 assists, and 3.8 rebounds.

Rodney’s Mustangs lost to New Castle in the WPIAL 5A semifinals in his sophomore year, but even though he could not get his team to advance to the WPIAL Championship game again, he still managed to produce some impressive statistics as he averaged 19.4 points per game, 5.4 assists and 2.1 steals. One of Rodney’s potential fondest moments of his sophomore season could have been his game-winning basket against Thomas Jefferson during the regular season as that is another example of how clutch Rodney can be.

Gallagher has been named on Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Fab 5 Boys Team for the past two years as a freshman and sophomore. It is not that well-known that a WPIAL player has been on the Fab 5 team for all four years of high school, but Gallagher has the best chance of accomplishing that feat. According to 247sports.com, Rodney is ranked the 51st best basketball player in the sophomore class of 2023. Since entering Rodney entered high school, Laurel Highlands has posted a record of 31-13 (.704). The year before he entered high school in 2018-19, the team had a record of 4-17. The quick turnaround that the team has had since Rodney joined the team shows how much of an impact he has had.

As a football player, it can be argued that Rodney is the whole Laurel Highlands football team as he plays wide receiver, defensive back, and even started two games as quarterback in his sophomore year. In Rodney’s freshman year, he recorded 25 receptions for 491 yards, rushed for 392 yards, and scored a total of 10 touchdowns in 10 games.

With his sophomore year only consisting of seven games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodney was still able to score the most touchdowns on the team with seven. As a sophomore, Rodney also led the team in rushes (67), rushing yards (147), receptions (17), receiving yards (300), and passing touchdowns (4). In the 2020 season, Joe Chambers started the first five games at quarterback for the Mustangs while Rodney started the final two games. Just the fact that Rodney recorded more passing touchdowns than Joe, who only passed three touchdowns in 2020, should indicate how talented of a football player that Rodney is as he can do it all on the field. According to 247sports.com, he is ranked the 60th best football player in the class of 2023.

The most interesting fact about Rodney as a football player is that college recruiters are more impressed with his style of play as a defensive back rather than his offensive production.

Since Rodney started playing high school football, his team has a record of 5-12 (.294), and even though his winning percentage in football is nowhere as good as his record in basketball, he has more NCAA Division I offers in football than basketball.

The offers he has for basketball are from Illinois, Rhode Island, Pittsburgh, Hampton, Wake Forest, Penn State, George Mason and Florida. His football offers came from William & Mary, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Michigan, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Toledo, Michigan State, Syracuse, North Carolina State and Ole Miss.

The mind-blowing thing is that Rodney should get more offers for both sports as he continues his high school career.

One of the most important questions he will have to ask himself is “Do I want to play basketball or football in college?” Or another question he might ask himself is, “Do I want to play both basketball and football in college?”

While it is less common to see a Division I athlete play both football and basketball compared to the high school level, some athletes have done it before as Julius Peppers did it at North Carolina, Tony Gonzalez did it at UC Berkley, and Donovan McNabb did it at Syracuse. Rodney could play both sports in college if he wanted to, and if he did, Pittsburgh and Penn State would be the schools that might allow him to do that since he has offers for both sports at those schools.

When Rodney was younger, his mother died, and he has definitely used that his motivation to be the greatest human and athlete that he can be. At a young age, that is probably the biggest test of adversity that he has ever dealt with, and if he has found a way to stay strong since her death, dealing with adversity while playing sports might mean nothing to him.

Between Rodney’s 3,000+ Twitter followers and 85,200+ Instagram followers, he might be considered one of the most popular high school athletes that ever lived in the WPIAL, based on social media, as those numbers are only increasing. While Rodney’s videos on HUDL have received more than 17,000 views, Rodney also posts pictures and videos on social media of him playing football and basketball as people are seeing the talent that he has as more colleges are going to want to go after him and offer him.

Terrelle Pryor has seen the attention that Gallagher is currently getting, and Pryor can relate because he was a star high school basketball and football player just like Gallagher is today. Earlier this year, Pryor reached out to Gallagher and the two athletes made a YouTube video in which they both had a conversation. Pryor was giving Gallagher advice on life and how to deal with being a star athlete. The video basically represented Pryor acting as a big brother or role model to Gallagher, and Pryor could have given any athlete that same advice, but he decided to choose Rodney because of how much potential he has.

Before the start of the 2020 WPIAL basketball season, current sophomore basketball players Brandon Davis and Keondre DeShields transferred to Laurel Highlands. While it is not stated to the public why those two athletes transferred, it would probably not surprise some people if Brandon and Keondre transferred to Laurel Highlands because it was a good basketball school and to potentially get exposed in the recruiting process because playing on the same team as Rodney can draw a lot of recruiters. Also, who would not want to play with one of the best high school athletes in the area?

Camera crews constantly go to watch Rodney’s high school games in order to capture the highlight plays that he makes. While Rodney could go down as one of the most talented multi-sport athletes in the WPIAL, and maybe in the country, he is looking to win more WPIAL titles and he is looking for a state title while continuing to build his legacy.

Rodney has more to prove as it will be exciting to see what else he can accomplish at Laurel Highlands before he graduates.