Lancaster Catholic has been considered among the top teams in District 3 Class “AA” for the past five years.
Now, its quarterback is considered one of the top returning quarterbacks in the state.
Kyle Smith, a senior-to-be for the Lancaster Catholic Crusaders, has nine Division-1 schools interested in his services, according to Rivals.com and confirmed by Jeffrey Reinhart of the Lancaster New Era.
Smith, who is coming off an extremely solid 2008 season, has interest from Georgia, Pitt, Penn State, Florida State, and Maryland, along with UCONN, Duke, Rutgers, and Virginia. The lefty does not have any official offers.
Reinhart said that, in the early stages of the recruiting process, Smith has liked what he’s seen from Georgia.
The 6’3 field general had a brilliant sophomore campaign in 2007. He completed 161-of-238 passes for 2,615 yards with 27 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Smith was even better in 2008. He completed 181-of-276 passes for 3,192 yards with 42 touchdowns to a scant five interceptions.
Smith has thrown for 5,807 yards in just two years. He’s a mere 2,302 yards shy of tying Pat Devlin’s state record for passing yardage in a career, which stands at 8,109 yards.
Smith also ranks eighth in the state in career touchdown passes, with 69. Former Manheim Township quarterback Pat Bostick owns the state standard, with 94. Only two other PA quarterbacks have thrown for more than 90 career touchdowns: Lakeland’s Evan Kraky (93) and Bethlehem Catholic’s Dan Kendra (91).
In addition to returning a blue-chip quarterback, Lancaster Catholic will figure to be one of the top-5 teams in the “AA” classification this fall.
The Crusaders have gone 56-9 since the start of 2004, and are the owners of four District 3 championships.
