Some stories on key Pitt verbals for the next recruiting class.

Pat Bostick always wanted to be a quarterback.

Last year’s 9-2 mark was one of Manheim Twp.’s best marks in years and resulted in the Blue Streaks’ first District 3-AAAA playoff ap pearance.

All of that has led to Bostick be ing chased by re cruiters last win ter, a process he ended on July 11 when he told everyone that he was going to attend Pitts burgh.

“It was just a really good situation for me there,” Bostick said. “Plus, I really like [Pitt head coach] Dave Wannstedt. He’s a really down-to-earth guy, and he has a good eye for talent.”

…

“I’m just a normal guy; I don’t take that notoriety into account at all,” said Bostick, who grew up in Manheim Twp. “I have kind of a boring life outside of football. I’m not the most social guy around.

“I grew up wearing a football jersey [future trivia answer: Randall Cunningham’s], so football has been my focus for a long time,” Bostick said.

The other story is a longish “day in the life” with Henry Hynowski, Jr. in his local. The “day” in question was about a week before he verballed to Pitt. It’s just a little on the fawning side with sentences like, “His arms are thicker than a San Francisco fog, his shoulders would give Atlas pangs of envy.” (I’m not making that up.)

Although Hynoski isn’t a nationally known superstar like the fictitious Ricky Bobby — not yet, anyway — he’s already made enough amazing plays to count as a local legend. Entering his senior season, he’s rushed for nearly 5,000 yards and scored 72 touchdowns. He played arguably his greatest game while just a sophomore in 2004, when Southern met Pius X in the state quarterfinals; Hynoski ran for 419 yards and scored six touchdowns in the Tigers’ 76-47 win. In a regular-season game last year, he rushed for 238 yards and two touchdowns as Southern rallied from 15 points down to beat rival Mount Carmel 32-21. Three months later, he led Southern to its fourth consecutive state title by running for 271 yards (setting the record for a Class A final) and four touchdowns (tying another record) in a 50-19 win over Duquesne.

Yes, being a local legend has its privileges, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Hynoski this morning, just 12 hours before finishing his day by downing a few hot wings with his friends. Hynoski is working coach Jim Roth’s football camp for middle-school kids. The youngsters want to learn football, but they’re still kids, which means they chat with one another as Hynoski tries to show them how to run a proper pass route out of the backfield. “Yo! Pay attention! Hey!” Hynoski yells to get them focused again.

The kids, who are all assigned to different teams, go through a few drills, then they play 7-on-7. When lunchtime comes around, Hynoski and some of the other players file out and go to Sheetz for lunch. Hynoski will make three trips to Sheetz on this day, and each time he runs into a handful of people that he knows. One person ends their discussion by saying, “I’ll see you out on the field this fall.”

The conversation is reminiscent of a scene in “Dazed and Confused,” when an old man runs into the town’s star quarterback, grabs him at the elbow and says, “This arm ready to throw about 2,000 yards next fall?”

Later, when it’s suggested that he’ll be in a much larger pond in college, Hynoski doesn’t seem fazed. “I’m the kind of kid, I can adjust to anything,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll have any problem.”

Hynoski and a few friends make their way to his home in Elysburg. His cell phone goes off as he turns into his driveway. Staring at the origin of the call, he says, “It’s an (Internet) reporter. I’m going to ignore it — they call 10 times a day.”

But the important thing is he’s just a regular guy.

Since everyone loves list, Chris Dokish for PSR has the top-50 preseason recruits in Pennsylvania. Six of the top-20 are already Pitt verbals (out of the 8 verbals on the list):

1. Pat Bostick

7. Chris Jacobson

11. Myles Caragein

17. Dom DeCicco
19. Dan Matha
20. Henry Hynoski

29. Greg Gaskins

46. John Fieger

Penn State has 5 verbals (all 5 are top-20)

WVU has 3 (0 top 20)

ND has 1 (1 top 20)

Virginia has 3 (2 top 20)

UConn has 4

UNC has 2

‘Cuse has 2

Michigan St., Northwestern, VT, Ohio St., Colorado, Temple and Rutgers each have 1 from the list.

There are 15 undecided at this point (6 in the top 20).