County gridders head to Lafayette
David Miller and Ryan Gralish spent last fall helping the football teams at Seneca Valley and Mars, respectively, turn in successful seasons.
For the next four years, they will be teammates at the collegiate level.
Miller, an offensive lineman, and Gralish, a placekicker and punter, both signed a letter of intent Feb. 1 to play football at Lafayette College in Easton.
Both players were entertaining other offers — Miller from Virginia Military Institute, Robert Morris University and William & Mary and Gralish from Duquesne, Gannon and Oberlin.
But their final decisions have the pair heading to Lafayette, a Division I-AA school.
“Academics are very important to me,” said Gralish, who will focus his studies on Biochemistry. “Plus, I really wanted the chance to play Division I football.”
Miller plans on majoring in engineering, something Lafayette is well known for.
“It's a good football program too,” he said. “I visited there Jan. 20 and it's a very nice campus.”
Miller and Gralish will look to help the Leopards improve on a 2011 season which saw the team finish 4-7 overall and in fifth place out of six teams in the Patriot League.
A resident of Cranberry Township, Miller began starting for Seneca Valley as a sophomore in 2009 and was a fixture at right tackle through his senior season.
In 2011, he helped the Raiders to an unprecedented season on offense as the team averaged nearly 400 yards of offense per game. He also was a member of the first SV team to win a playoff game in nine years.
“It's a cliche, but it's also true: Your success begins up front,” said SV head coach Don Holl. “David was a big reason why we were able to do a lot of the things we did offensively.”
Miller (6-foot-4, 315 pounds) was named an All-Northern Seven Conference first-teamer the last two seasons.
“Over the last three seasons, he was able to get more comfortable with our system,” added Holl. “He's a great student of the game.”
That spread offensive scheme gives Miller a jump on his responsibilities in college.
“(Lafayette) runs an offense similar to the one we have at Seneca Valley,” said Miller. “It's a spread scheme with a lot of zone blocking. There's a bit of pro-style thrown in.”
Miller was one of six offensive linemen to commit to the Leopards on signing day.
“We only have nine returning linemen coming into spring practice,” said Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani. “We needed to bring six in and we feel it's a very strong class.
“We were really impressed with how athletic David is.”Gralish, who booted eight field goals and 55 extra points for Mars over the last two seasons, also began punting in his senior campaign and helped the Planets to a seventh straight WPIAL playoff appearance.“If we were in field goal range and it was fourth down, we didn't have to put much thought into it, we were sending him out there,” said Planets' coach Scott Heinauer. “He was very dependable.”Gralish ended up earning All-Greater Allegheny Conference first team honors as a kicker (2010-11) and second team as a punter (2011). His career long field goal stands at 37 yards.For now, Lafayette is looking at Gralish strictly as a kicker, but his ability to punt is certainly a plus.“I saw him on film,” said Tavani. “The fact that he has versatility between punting and kicking, that's a real value. And his size, 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, you don't see many kickers with that kind of size.”The Leopards place kicker this past season was freshman Austin O'Brien, who recently left the team for personal reasons.“Ryan will have every chance to come in and start next season,” said Tavani.That possibility sits well with Gralish, who resides in Adams Township.“I'm looking forward to starting as a freshman,” he said. “It should be a great experience.”Gralish began playing soccer when he was only three years old and it's only been within the last couple of years that he focused on playing football in college.“Through my freshman and sophomore years, I was hoping to play soccer in college,” he said. “But once I started getting the hang of kicking, I started to focus more on football.”Before they join Lafayette, Miller and Gralish will be teammates on another squad. They have both been selected to play in June's Pennsylvania East-West All-Star Game.
