The following is the first in a series highlighting some of the area's top high school football players.
Name: Christian Brumbaugh
School: South Fayette
Year: Senior
Position: Quarterback
Height: 6-3
Weight: 195
By the numbers: In Brumbaugh's second year as starting quarterback, South Fayette surged to its first undefeated, untied regular season since 1936 and the Lions won the Class AA Century Conference with a 9-0 record.
Brumbaugh put together one of the top seasons by a local quarterback as he became the first at the position to earn Observer-Reporter Player of the Year recognition since Canon-McMillan's Doug Rheam in 2004. Brumbaugh led the WPIAL with 29 touchdown passes.
Operating the Lions' spread offense, Brumbaugh completed 153 of 241 attempts (63.5 percent) for 2,183 yards.
Scholarship offers: Brumbaugh is the WPIAL's most sought-after quarterback in the Class of 2011 with scholarship offers from Akron, Bowling Green and Buffalo. Former South Fayette quarterback Andrew DiDonato is part of Buffalo's coaching staff and current SF assistant coach Marques Parks played at Bowling Green.
Several other schools have shown interest.
"Toledo is coming after me pretty hard. So is William & Mary," Brumbaugh said. "I've thought about the Ivy League as well."
Brumbaugh's dream school is Penn State but he said the Nittany Lions have not shown interest.
Unfinished business: South Fayette lost to Aliquippa in the WPIAL quarterfinals, in a televised game that's nothing short of a classic. That loss left Brumbaugh and South Fayette, ranked No. 4 in the PIAA Class AA by maxpreps.com, wanting more.
"It took me a while before I could watch that game but when I did, I kept noticing things I could have done here and there that would have helped us," Brumbaugh said. "Aliquippa went to the finals so we lost to a great team with a great tradition but we're trying not to let that happen to us again this year."
In his hands: Brumbaugh is crafting a legacy at a school that already boasts two of top eight passers in WPIAL history in DiDonato and Niel Loebig. No matter what happens on the football field in 2010, Brumbaugh will be remembered for one of the signature plays in South Fayette athletics.
A key contributor and occasional starter for the basketball team during the 2009-10 season, Brumbaugh collected the final rebound during the Lions' 49-47 victory over District 12's Strawberry Mansion in the PIAA Class AA championship.
It was the first PIAA team title in South Fayette history.
"That was incredible," Brumbaugh said. "The kid who shot it was making shots all game. I was under the hoop and thinking, 'Please, miss this because if you miss this I'm going to try and go get it.' The ball felt like it was in the air for 10 seconds. Once I grabbed it, I realized there was only one or two seconds left and it was over."
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