Most of the activity involving pre-season oral declarations to date has come from southeastern Pennsylvania (16) and the WPIAL (seven). District 3 is now getting into the act, as one of the district’s top offensive linemen, regardless of classification, has made his college choice.
Adam DePietro, a 6’5, 270-pound offensive tackle for Lancaster Catholic High School, has issued an oral declaration to the Northwestern Wildcats, according to national recruiting service Scout.com. Northwestern has already landed two other highly touted PA offensive line prospects this 2012 recruiting class, receiving declarations from Upper St. Clair’s Ian Park and Malvern Preparatory School’s Connor Mahoney.
During his recruiting process, DePietro received a dozen verbal scholarship offers from Boston College, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Illinois, Michigan State, North Carolina State, Pitt, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Villanova and West Virginia, in addition to Northwestern. Scout and Rivals also listed interest, but no verbal offers, from programs like Akron, Georgia, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Stanford and Virginia.
Scout ranks DePietro as the #18 offensive guard in the nation in the 2012 recruiting class and a three-star prospect. DePietro is the #2 offensive guard in Pennsylvania according to Scout, trailing only Archbishop Wood’s Frank Taylor (#10), who held a total of 20 FBS & FCS verbal scholarship offers before issuing a declaration to Boston College a little more than two weeks ago. Additionally, Rivals rated DePietro as the #71 player at his position in the 2012 class.
Though he currently plays tackle in high school, DePietro could wind up playing at offensive guard in college.
DePietro helped to pave the way for a productive Lancaster Catholic offense that averaged 398.6 yards (241.3 rushing, 157.3 passing) and 39.9 points per game. The LC offensive arsenal included weapons like an 1,800-yard passer, a pair of 1,000-yard rushers and five receivers with between 222 to 482 receiving yards on the season. The Crusaders scored 67 offensive touchdowns (44 rushing, 23 passing).
Lancaster Catholic finished 11-1 in 2010, falling in the District 3 AA playoffs in an upset loss to Wyomissing. The Crusaders have posted an 82-11 (.881) overall record since the start of the 2004 season, winning three District 3 AA crowns and the 2009 PIAA AA championship in that span.
