'07 PA TE/DE Rob Gronkowski (Arizona signee)

[Taosman]

Position of huge need, now.
If we could land this kid it would be the best TE prospect we've gotten since Stan White.

[jwinslow]

Irizarry was #4, but he didn't stick around long.

i would imagine this kid has become an even larger priority...

[osugrad21]

Clemson is feeling pretty confident about Rob...

[Taosman]

Close proximity to C-bus can't hurt our pitch.

[OSUBucks22]

Originally Posted by osugrad21

Clemson is feeling pretty confident about Rob...

So are North Carolina and Maryland...

If he visits, we'll have just as good a shot as anyone...

[Buckskin86]

Tight end leaving Williamsville North

By MARY JO MONNIN
News Sports Reporter
8/11/2006

Rob Gronkowski is poised to have a monster year on the football field, but it won't be for Williamsville North High School.
Gronkowski, the No. 7-ranked tight end in the nation by Rivals.com, is transferring to play his senior year at Woodland Hills High School outside of Pittsburgh.

He's expected to enroll today and will be eligible to begin football practice immediately. Woodland Hills is a Pennsylvania powerhouse routinely ranked among the top 50 by USA Today. It currently has five players on its roster with NCAA Division I offers. The school has had 70 Division I players in the last 19 years and four players reach the pros.

Gronkowski (6-foot-6, 255 pounds) was a Player of the Year and Connolly Cup favorite in Western New York. In 2005, he was second-team All-New York State and first-team All-WNY. He caught 36 passes for 648 yards.

Gronkowski said he first became aware of the school two summers ago while attending an adidas camp at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Their whole team was down there. They were all good and I was going against them all," said Gronkowski. "It's a great place to be for football. We started looking into it after last season. I've been thinking about it all summer."

The family is familiar with the area as father Gordie owns five fitness retail stores in metro Pittsburgh.

Gronkowski's family is not relocating to Pittsburgh with him. Rob said he got an apartment and his family will visit Thursday to Sunday. Gordie will be in town much of the season to oversee the renovation of some of his stores.

Woodland Hills coach George Novak said he was "shocked" hearing he was getting Gronkowski.

"For us, with his credentials, he's one of the best athletes we've ever had. I've never had anyone walk in like that. We've very excited," he said.

Gronkowski has yet to make any of his official NCAA visits, but has narrowed his top six schools to Maryland, Arizona, Clemson, North Carolina, Ohio State and Syracuse.

Two of his brothers are already at Maryland. Dan, a sophomore, is No. 1 on the depth chart at tight end while Chris is a reshirt freshman fullback. The oldest son, Gordon Jr., was drafted in June by baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 49th round out of Jacksonville University.

e-mail: mmonnin@buffnews.com

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...11/1002246.asp

[Buckskin86]

Top TE to Woodland Hills


Woodland Hills has been projected to be one of the best teams in Pennsylvania this season. But the Wolverines got a little better Friday.

Rob Gronkowski, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound senior who is ranked as one of the top tight ends in the country, transferred from Williamsville North High near Buffalo, N.Y., and enrolled at Woodland Hills.

Scout.com ranks him the No. 2 tight end in the country and rivals.com No. 7. He has narrowed his list of colleges to Arizona, Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina, Ohio

State and Syracuse


Gronkowski's father, Gordon, a former Syracuse player, is moving to an apartment in Wilkins Township for a year because he owns a handful of G & G Fitness Equipment stores in the Pittsburgh area.

Gordon Gronkowski's wife and another son will stay in the Buffalo area. Gordon Gronkowski did not try to hide that one of the main reasons his son is moving with him is to play football at Woodland Hills.

Rob Gronkowski attended a combine at Pitt two years ago and got to meet some Woodland Hills players.

"Then we caught a couple of Woodland Hills games on TV in Buffalo," Gordon Gronkowski said. "There's just not the quality of football in the state of New York that there is here.

"We want him to play with good talent around him instead of getting triple-teamed. Here, he blends right in."

Rob Gronkowski also is an excellent basketball player, averaging 22 points a game last year.

WPIAL Executive Director Tim O'Malley said Gronkowski will be eligible to play under PIAA rules because he moved with one, or both, of his parents. O'Malley said someone has to prove athletic intent for Gronkowski to be ineligible.

Woodland Hills coach George Novak said Gronkowski wasn't recruited to play at Woodland Hills, but some coaches are complaining. They say it's obvious Gronkowski moved just to play football.

Rob Gronkowski and his father both said representatives of a few other schools in the WPIAL called Gronkowski and asked him to check out their school. Neither the player nor his father would name those schools.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06225/713111-49.stm

[osugrad21]

Rivals $

8/14

Rob is already enrolled at Woodland Hills and says the move does not affect his recruiting at all.

[bobcat84]

If you focus on his statement that the transfer was because of "the quality of football at Woodland Hills".....let's compare:

Syracuse
Maryland
North Carolina
Arizona
Clemson

Ohio State

there is no comparison if you focus on "quality".....

[osugrad21]

I agree with transfer rules, but a legitimate change of residence cannot be stopped. Any family willing to move to another state, for athletic reasons or not, has every right to choose the school for their kids. Hopefully this neagativity from the Pittsburgh press hurts their chances...

Link

Smizik: WPIAL needs new transfer rules

Woodland Hills case underscores the need for revised set of transfer rules in WPIAL

Wednesday, August 16, 2006
By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Based on recent history, any eligibility hearing for Rob Gronkowski, a tight end with a national reputation who has transferred from a Buffalo, N.Y., school to Woodland Hills High School, should be an open-and-shut case. Gronkowski should be ruled eligible. After all, he's moving with one of his parents, who will live with him at least part of the time.
That should put him several eligibility steps ahead of Tino Sunseri, a quarterback who transferred from a high school in North Carolina to Central Catholic without his parents.
Sunseri, who clearly transferred for athletic intent, was ruled eligible by the WPIAL.
<!--BEGIN SIDEBOX-->
It was a disheartening -- and stupefying -- decision for anyone who cares about high school sports. It was another step down the wrong path. It was another step away from the historic concept of one neighborhood against another to one all-star team against one neighborhood.
The losers are those who believe in the old-fashioned concept of high school sports and all the young athletes who must compete against these all-star teams.
By granting eligibility to Sunseri, the WPIAL made the best team in the region -- composed of players from all over the region -- significantly better with the addition of a blue-chip quarterback. Whiny followers of Central Catholic justified the move by insisting Sunseri only wanted to play at the high school of his father. Some went further to point out that any critics of the decision were "anti-Catholic."
It's amazing how blind people can be when their own self-interest is involved.
Sunseri shamelessly transferred for athletic intent. It wasn't about playing at his dad's school. It wasn't about the academic excellence of Central Catholic. It was about playing for an outstanding football team.
Shame on the WPIAL for granting him eligibility.
Now comes Gronkowski, whose case is remarkably similar to Sunseri with one major difference. Woodland Hills appears to be innocent. Based on available information, Woodland Hills and its coach George Novak did nothing wrong.
The Gronkowski family is either extraordinarily naive or outrageously brazen. It made no attempt to hide the fact the transfer was for athletic intent. Gordon Gronkowski, who already has had two sons win Division I-A football scholarships, certainly should know how the game is played, which makes you think he was more brazen than naive. Maybe he read about Sunseri's being granted eligibility and figured his son had a better case.
In comments made to the Post-Gazette, he made no attempt to suggest the transfer was but anything for athletic intent.
"... we caught a couple of Woodland Hills games on TV in Buffalo. There's just not the quality of football in the state of New York that there is here. We want him [Rob] to play with good talent around him instead of getting triple-teamed."
Based on that statement alone, Rob Gronkowski immediately should be sent back to Buffalo.
But that would be inconsistent with the Sunseri ruling, which was made in June.
Suggestions seeping out of the WPIAL hearing for Sunseri indicate there was a legitimate reason for the transfer. Until we hear that reason, though, we'll stick with the belief the transfer was for athletic intent alone and was a colossal mistake by the WPIAL, which disregarded its responsibility to all other teams and players it represents.
These eligibility cases keep piling up on the WPIAL, and a lot of them are far more nuanced than the ones involving Gronkowski and Sunseri. Compounding the problem is the threat of legal recourse by the transferring family against governing bodies such as the WPIAL.
There's no easy solution, but the best one already is being discussed. It involves a standing rule that all transfers are ineligible for their first semester. That takes the burden of proof away from the WPIAL and puts it on the transferring athlete. Instead of the WPIAL having to prove the player transferred for athletic intent, the player will have to prove he didn't.
It won't solve all the problems, but it would be a major step in the right direction and, hopefully, plans are afoot to implement it.

[zonabuck]

If a kid can transfer from one school to another for better academics then there is no reason to deny a transfer for better athletics as long as the other criteria have been met.

[osugrad21]

Link


<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1">
</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="499">Rob Gronkowski's plans to play his senior year of football at Woodland Hills High School outside of Pittsburgh may be derailed.


The eligibility of Gronkowski, who would otherwise be a senior at Williamsville North, is under investigation following candid comments by his father, Gordie, in a Pittsburgh newspaper.
Rob, one of the top-ranked tight ends in the country, already has 10 scholarship offers from NCAA Division I-A schools.
Rob would have been eligible immediately at Woodland Hills as he met the criteria of having moved into the school district with at least one parent. But in Sunday's editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gordie Gronkowski said: "There's just not the quality of football in the state of New York that there is here. We want [Rob] to play with good talent around him instead of getting triple-teamed. Here, he blends right in."
Those words could come back to haunt the Gronkowskis as an eligibility hearing will be held next week in front of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League. The board will decide if Gronkowski's move is based on athletic intent, which is not allowed.
"The matter is under investigation, based on the most recent publicity associated with his transfer," interscholastic league Executive Director Tim O'Malley told the Post-Gazette in Wednesday's editions.
The Gronkowskis rented an apartment for a year within the school district. While Rob was to attend school and play football, his father was going to look after his G & G Fitness stores in the Pittsburgh area.
If the board rules in favor of Gronkowski, he will be eligible to play in the team's season opener Sept. 1. If the ruling goes against him, he can appeal to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
He could also return to North but would not be eligible to play under New York State rules until he's participated in 15 team practices. The Western Pennsylvania league doesn't have a practice requirement.
Attempts to reach the Gronkowskis on Wednesday night were unsuccessful.
</td></tr></tbody> </table>

[BuckeyeNation27]

I understand the spirit of the rule, but you gotta let the kid play. He's trying to make himself a better athlete, which will get him into a better college. Unless there's something going on behind the scenes where he got recruited to go, I don't see a problem.

[MaxBuck]

Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. WPIAL claims you can only move into a school district if your reasons for doing so meet their pre-approval? What a crock.

[Buckskin86]

Published: August 19, 2006 12:00 am

HIGH SCHOOL: Did Gronkowski transfer for football?

By Jonah Bronstein
TheAmherstRecord.com

Rob Gronkowski’s behavior, and not his desire to play football at a higher level, could be the reason he transferred to a Pittsburgh-area juggernaut, according to multiple sources.

Some allege that Gronkowski recently sent a threatening e-mail to a Williamsville School District faculty member, and the feared consequences of that action facilitated Gronkowski’s decision last week to transfer from Williamsville North High School to Woodland Hills High School in Pennsylvania.

Initial reports suggested that Gronkowski, regarded as one of the top tight end prospects in the country, switched schools because of the lack of competition in Western New York.

“There’s just not the quality of football in the state of New York that there is here,” Gronkowski’s father, Gordon, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We want him to play with good talent around him instead of getting triple-teamed.”

But Gronkowski was already being sought by some of the biggest programs in the land. Notre Dame originally was interested and reports say that the Gronkowski has made recruiting visits to Florida, Ohio State and Syracuse.

And according to Dick Gallagher, who publishes the Western New York High School Sports annual, the talent in Pennsylvania isn’t much greater than it is in this area.

“Hundreds of players from around here have gone on to play at good colleges,” he said. “The only difference between Pennsylvania and New York is that there is tremendous [fan] passion there. They live and die football. We don’t.”

The comments of Gordon Gronkowski, and one Rob made to another paper suggesting he would be living alone part of the time he was in Pennsylvania, have jeopardized his eligibility at Woodland, according to Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Executive Director Tim O’Malley.

Gronkowski is currently eligible with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, according to O’Malley, because he and his father have moved into an apartment within the Woodland Hills School District.

But PIAA bylaws prohibit transfers for athletic intent. O’Malley said the WPIAL is concerned with the Gronkowskis’ public expression that football interests motivated Rob’s transfer. Gordon Gronkowski also told the Post-Gazette that he’s moving to the Pittsburgh area because he owns multiple G & G Fitness Equipment stores in the area.

A hearing has been set for Monday to determine if Gronkowski will remain eligible. The burden of proof is on the WPIAL, but O’Malley said the Gronkowskis have to answer to their statements.

“In this case we have before us information that they have indicated an athletic intent,” O’Malley said. “And they certainly have to dispute that.”

Gronkowski is still eligible to play at North, according to Section VI chairman Chuck Funke, once he completes the required 15 practices, including a specific number of non-contact days.

But will the Spartans welcome him back?

“He got kicked out of Williamsville North,” said one source, speaking on the condition on anonymity. “If he does come back, he won’t play there. He’ll play at one of the private schools.”

North athletic director Steven Ferenczy and district AD James Rusin both refused comment on Thursday. North football coach Mike Mammoliti has not returned several messages seeking comment. A message left with Gordon Gronkowski on Thursday was not immediately returned.

Rita Wolff, the district’s director of communications, confirmed that Gronkowski has officially withdrawn from the school, but added that it’s the district’s policy not to comment on student files.

“As far as we know it was a personal decision on the part of his family,” Wolff said. “We won’t comment on disciplinary action for any student.”

That an ulterior motive may have fueled Gronkowski’s transfer coincide with the belief held by many that Gronkowski’s stated intentions don’t make sense.

Gronkowski has already received 10 scholarship offers from major programs and was an early favorite to win the Connolly Cup.

Gronkowski told TheAmherstRecord.com last month that he wanted to lead the Spartans this year to Ralph Wilson Stadium for the first time in school history.

According to Gallagher, Gronkowski also could have been an All-WNY selection in basketball and baseball.

“I don’t see what the benefit of (transferring) is,” he said.

Gallagher also opined that, if football were the sole reason Gronkowski was transferring, he would have done so earlier in the summer.

Contact Jonah Bronstein

at 693-1000, Ext. 111.

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/sport...secondarystory