Two local QBs named to Elite 11
It all started with thousands of quarterbacks at Nike combines around the country, playing for a chance to be in the Elite 11 quarterback competition.
It all started with thousands of quarterbacks at Nike combines around the country, playing for a chance to be in the Elite 11 quarterback competition.
Those thousands became 30 in June. The 30 were then whittled to the 18 quarterbacks who made the trip to Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. And when a week of competition produced the Elite 11 last Friday, two Philadelphia-area quarterbacks stood among the nation's best.
"I think that everyone looks at the meccas of high school football being Texas, Florida, or California," said Archbishop Wood's Anthony Russo, who was joined in the Elite 11 by Council Rock North's Brandon McIlwain. "With me and Brandon being in the Elite 11, we proved that kids from Pennsylvania can compete with anyone in the country."
Russo and McIlwain are three-star recruits in the Class of 2016, with Russo orally committed to Rutgers and McIlwain to South Carolina. Both were standouts last week at the Elite 11 competition, the annual event run by former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer.
"To have [Russo and McIlwain] be considered top quarterbacks just shows that Pennsylvania football is second to none," said Adam Collachi, who coaches McIlwain at Council Rock North.
"Was always a dream to be part of the fraternity," McIlwain tweeted after the event, referring to a group of Elite 11 quarterbacks that includes NFL starters Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, and Teddy Bridgewater, among others.
Also in the competition was Rochester, N.Y., quarterback Jake Zembiec, who has orally committed to Penn State's Class of 2016. Zembiec was in the final 18 and didn't make the Elite 11, but he was able to pick the brain of PSU quarterback Christian Hackenberg, one of Dilfer's college counselors.
Zembiec, who like Hackenberg is labeled a pro-style quarterback, said he and Hackenberg have become friends through texts and phone calls. Last week was the first time Zembiec got on-field advice from the former five-star recruit.
"He didn't do much with the X's and O's with me, which was cool," Zembiec said. "He told me to enjoy the rest of high school because he said it becomes like a job in college."
The quarterbacks' week started with a military-like workout that lasted close to four hours. It included a two-mile run with 50-pound backpacks, a lengthy swimming test, and carrying a comrade on a stretcher for 30 minutes.
On the field, the 18 quarterbacks were given a thick, college-level playbook they were expected to master. And they were judged on everything - how they threw, how they read defenses, how they walked, and even the way they shook hands at the competition.