By TED SILARY

silaryt@phillynews.com

Sam Feleccia feels like one of those guys who's pulled out of the stands at a minor league baseball game.

The ones who are told to take a bat, stand it on its end, close their eyes, spin around and around and around and run over there without falling and/or looking comical.

Yes, the recruiting process can resemble the "Dizzy Bat Race," no matter the sport.

No one doubts that Feleccia, a 6-3, 225-pound senior at La Salle High, is capable of playing college football at the Division I-A or I-AA level. Where will he wind up? What position will he play? How many curveballs will he be forced to face along the way?

Maybe a dizzying amount.

Feleccia's problem, at least for now, can be traced to a high-ankle sprain suffered in late August in the Explorers' second scrimmage, vs. Pennsbury.

He caught a pass, headed toward the sideline and crumpled in pain after a twist-the-body tackle.

"I thought it was my knee at first, really," Feleccia said. "That feeling went away and then I had to deal with the pain in my ankle. I tried to run a little that week. Just couldn't do it.

"Just standing around watching practice was terrible. That was the worst part...Besides watching games.

"If something's going to happen to you injurywise, you definitely don't want it to be your senior year. That's rough."

As a junior, despite a tender shoulder that was a seasonlong issue, Feleccia (fuh-leash-uh) earned second-team Daily News All-City honors after making 51 receptions for 971 yards and eight touchdowns while helping La Salle win the Catholic AAAA title.

Even before that campaign he had received his first recruiting letter, courtesy of Rutgers, and now they were arriving on a fairly regular basis. Some were routine. Some were personalized. Now they all sit in a box and Feleccia is unsure what's going to happen.

Junior year is one thing. Senior is another and the college recruiters want to see for themselves, via DVD, what kind of heroics a kid is still (or isn't) producing.

Feleccia returned for La Salle 's fourth game, a 24-17 loss to archrival St. Joseph's Prep, and managed five catches for 46 yards and a touchdown. The ankle was balky, though, and he missed another tilt before returning for the last three.

"Coaches were asking for a senior-year highlight tape," he said, "and I was recently able to send out one that was maybe 6-7 minutes long. Being out definitely affected what I could put on there."

That's where the rest of the season comes in.

La Salle this week will meet a fellow toughie in Cardinal O'Hara and, as craziness would have it, those two will tangle again next week in a AAAA semifinal.

The Explorers are not scheduled to play on Thanksgiving. The season could be over rather quickly or could extend all the way until the weekend before Christmas, depending on the ever-present combination of skill, desire and luck.

Feleccia is not the only Explorer with much to gain from the increased exposure an extended run would produce. Coach Drew Gordon has four other players attracting I-A and/or I-AA interest - quarterback Drew Loughery, linemen Steve Szostak and Steve Sinnott, and kicker Mike Bennett.

Feleccia's situation is interesting because he has also blossomed into quite the physical inside linebacker.

"I still see Sam as a receiver for college," Gordon said. "He really goes and gets the ball."

"I like receiver, but defense is more my thing," Feleccia said. "Most schools, like Syracuse, are saying they see me as an H-back, that combo tight end/slot. Delaware likes me at linebacker, or maybe tight end. Wherever a school wants me is fine, though."

Just last Saturday, Feleccia and his father, Ron, took a ride to upstate New York to watch 'Cuse host Cincinnati.

"That was pretty cool," he said. "I was able to stand on the sidelines before the game and watch them have warmups. Our seats were in the lower level. Maybe the eighth row, fifth row, somewhere in there. That was a good game to see because Cincinnati is ranked No. 5."

Feleccia, who lives in Ambler and is leaning toward a business career, comes off as laid-back everywhere except on football fields. There, Sam becomes Bam due to big hits and impactful catches.

"My dad has been after me to go to more college games," he said, "and to start looking into all this stuff some more. I'm not really worried whether it's going to be I-A or I-AA. I just know it's pretty neat to think I'll be playing college football at a good level."

Grab that bat again, kid. Let the spinning continue.

This recruiting thing isn't close to being over.