Line Mountain tackle Alex Karlovich likes to say that offensive linemen keeps the pretty boys pretty.
Karlovich, along with Southern Columbia's Tom Schetroma and Matt Moore are looking pretty today as they were named to the Pennsylvania Sportswriters All-State football team on Wednesday.
"That's awesome," Karlovich, a 6-1, 300 pound senior who played left tackle and defensive tackle, said of being named to the first-team offensive line.
"Last year when I made the second team, I made it a goal of mine to make the first team this year."
Line Mountain head coach Mike Carson said Karlovich was the best offensive linemen he had coached in his 30 years of coaching high school football.
"Alex has great feet and great eye-hand coordination and he's very athletic," Carson said. "We've had some good offensive success lately and he was as much a part of it as were the skill people. That's a credit not only to him but to the offensive line as well."
other to get better this year.
"We lost a lot of seniors and we had a good corps of juniors that came in and stepped up," he said. "Marty (Beninsky) threw the ball well and it was a group effort which led to winning the conference championship this year."
Karlovich is unsure of where he'll play football at college as he is looking at his options to pursue a degree in nursing or criminal justice.
"I want to go to a school where I can play football and get a good education whether its in state or out of state," he said.
Matt Moore, Karlovich's cousin, was named to the first team as a specialist after the 6-0, 260-pound senior played both ways this year. Moore captured a silver medal back in May in the PIAA State track and field championship in the 300 intermediate hurdles.
"It didn't take long for me to adjust to playing both ways as I was in pretty good condition from track," he said. "I enjoyed playing both ways and I am glad Coach Roth had the trust in me to do it."
"Those two (Moore and Schetroma) are certainly deserving of this honor, they had an outstanding year," Southern Columbia head coach Jim Roth said. "Matt continued to play well defensively and came across to the offensive side and had a tremendous season after Tyrell (Thomas) went down with the ACL injury. For both of them to play at a high level two ways is impressive."
Moore rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown in the PIAA Class A state title-game loss to Clairton.
Schetroma, a 6' 260 senior, made the first team as a defensive lineman a year after he missed his junior season with an ACL injury. He had stared as a freshman and sophomore.
"I was pretty excited about it when I heard I had made it, I thought I had decent stats, I'm happy," he said.
Schetroma completed his physical therapy in Mount Carmel in three to four months in what normally takes five to six months.
"I made sure I didn't miss anything in the workout and I stayed there to better myself," he added. "It was a long process and it was definitely one of the hardest things to come back from. I was lifting today (Wednesday), and I could tell the quad strength was between 60-70 percent of what it was."
"I would rather had a state title and a ring than be named to this award, but it is nice to get it," he said when asked if being named to the first team took some of the sting away from loss to Clairton.
"In Tom's situation, he was coming off the injury and a lot of times you see set a setback. He didn't seem to miss a beat. He worked really hard in rehab to get to 100 percent," Roth said.
