WPIAL & City League Football Player Preview: Baldwin's Connor Lavelle commits to Lehigh University

Baldwin's Connor Lavelle (11) runs with a football during a game against Chartiers Valley in 2018.

SOURCE: Randy Jarosz | For the Tribune-Review

One in a series on motivated high school football players in the WPIAL and City League.

Baldwin's Connor Lavelle is known by his teammates as a hard hitter and tackler as a safety while being able to escape tackles and spin away from defenders as a wide receiver. Just the overall athletic ability of Lavelle is a reason why he got offers from over a dozen colleges. So far, in Lavelle's high school career, he has recorded 32 interceptions for 379 yards while scoring three touchdowns.

When it comes to Lavelle's college recruiting, Lehigh University won the competition against the other schools that offered Lavelle as they were the school that he chose and committed to today.

Lavelle, who will be a rising senior in the fall, had a "Top 3" list as Yale and Lafayette were on that list, but at the end of the day, Lehigh won.

"I just loved everything about the place [Lehigh University]. It checked off all of my boxes", said Lavelle, who was recruited by Lehigh as a safety. "My family and close friends were the first ones to know my decision. Nothing but 100% support from them."

With Lavelle's college decision now over, you could say that a burden is off of his shoulder as he can now focus on his senior year of high school football at Baldwin.

"Yes it [committing before the start of the season] definitely gives me less stress and now I can just focus on my senior year," said Lavelle, who wants to major in Business/Economics in college.

Lavelle will have a new football coach in season as Tim Sweeney was hired as the team's new head football coach back in early April and so far, Lavelle has built a strong bond with Sweeney.

"For how little we’ve [Connor Lavelle and Tim Sweeney] spent together in person. Our relationship is very close. He is a great coach and an even better person," said Lavelle.

Last season, in 2019, the Highlanders reached the playoffs for the first time since 2013. They finished with a regular season record of 5-5 as they lost to McKeesport in the first round of the WPIAL Class 5A Playoffs by a score of 21-20. The unfortunate thing about the 2019 season for Baldwin is that they ended the season with three straight losses. However, after the unfortunate playoff loss for Baldwin last season, Lavelle expects his team to do better this season and is excited for the upcoming season.

"We learned how bitter it feels to lose a game like that [against McKeesport] and how it won’t happen again. Trust me, we won’t forget about it," said Lavelle. "I can’t wait for the season! I just hope we can get a season."

Lavelle, who happens to play poker, is also known to be a social kid as he has a lot of friends, works out with many football players from other high schools, and keeps in touch with a lot of WPIAL football players.

Going back to Baldwin football, they have a strong senior class (Class of 2021) led by Lavelle, Dorien Ford, C.J. Robbins, and Maisen Bourquin. Besides the Highlanders having a change in head coach for the 2020 season, they will have a new section and will be in a new classification in 2020 as they moved up from 5A to 6A. Lavelle is excited for the move up in classification.

"It’s definitely exciting to move up in classification. We had a lot of really good rivals in 5A, but we hope to make new ones in 6A", said Lavelle.

Some of the new teams in Baldwin's section for the 2020 season are Mt. Lebanon, Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, North Allegheny, and others. With that being said, Baldwin has a lot of talent on their team to excel and with Lavelle being one of the guys to lead the way, then "Why not Baldwin"?

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