Brentaro Yamane

WPIAL & City League Football Player Preview: Come on down to South Park, n' meet Eli Podgorski

In the past week, South Park football player Eli Podgorski visited Clarion University.

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

At the beginning of last football season, 2019, you could say that South Park started off slowly as they started 0-2 and were only able to score 14 points in those two games. However, as the season progressed, South Park continued to keep working to get better and they would then see themselves in the WPIAL 3A football playoffs. They defeated North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 3A Quarterfinals by a score of 32-27 before losing to Aliquippa in the next round by a score of 21-7.

South Park finished the 2019 season with an overall record of 5-6 and had a playoff win. The Eagles were the definition of an average high school football team, that didn't get much attention from the media, from last season and they know they have the capability to improve for the 2020 season.

However, one of their star lineman players returns and that is rising senior Eli Podgorski. Eli was a big reason that South Park was able to make the WPIAL playoffs in 2019 because of his strong physicality on the offense and defensive line. The way he would push opposing lineman is fun to watch as he had his share of pancake blocks. His 6'3" height and weight of 265 pounds helps him become a good lineman with his God given stature.

Eli has a big brother Ryan, who played college football at Slippery Rock and Pittsburgh, and when Eli was younger, he would watch his older brother Ryan play and that helped make Eli's decision that he wanted to play football.

"Watching my big brother Ryan play football just made me interested in it. Once I started playing is when I fell in love with it," said Eli, who is an All-Conference lineman on both sides of the ball.

As a lineman, Eli tries to get better each and every day and his hard work has led him to an offer to play college football from Washington & Jefferson. He credits his trainer in Ed Wietholder to his growth and development.

"I am very lucky to have an amazing trainer in Ed Wietholder at Strength Fitness and Speed. His workouts have made me improve immensely as a player. My diet is high in proteins and carbs with lots of water throughout the day," said Eli. "I felt great to know that my hard work is finally starting to pay off [after receiving the offer from Washington & Jefferson] even though this is just the beginning."

As Eli continues to try and be a better lineman, he watches film on Tennessee Titans Offensive Tackle Taylor Lewan and Los Angeles Rams Defensive Tackle Aaron Donald in order to try be better and perfect his craft.

On the other hand, Eli is hoping to see his South Park football team do great things in his senior season and knows they have the capability. After losing to Aliquippa in the semifinals from last season, Eli knows that his team learned a lot after losing to the Quips.

"We really learned the importance of playing all four quarters. Slipping up even a couple of minutes against a team like Aliquippa can really come back to hurt you," said Eli.

This upcoming season, the Eagles will stay in WPIAL Class 3A, but will have all new teams in their section such as Yough, Brownsville, Elizabeth Forward, South Allegheny, and others. Yes, that means Aliquippa, Beaver Falls, Central Valley, and Quaker Valley will not be in South Park's section for 2020. However, the new teams that the Eagles will face in 2020 does not worry Eli.

"I don’t think we have anything to worry about. We have had tough conferences our whole high school career," said Eli, whose absolutely favorite subject in school is physics.

For the Eagles, they are trying to find a new quarterback as their former quarterback Stephen Kmonk graduated. The Eagles are also trying to replace their 1,000+ yard rusher from last season in Rudy Mihoces, who also just graduated high school. However, as the Eagles will continue to replace their starters from last season, the whole team knows that one of their most powerful linemen on both sides of the ball in Podgorski will return. Eli will continue to help his team out in any way that he can for this season.

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