Scott, Shinskie earn high school player-of-the-year honors
One player enjoyed the most productive rushing season in Pennsylvania football history. The other had the best passing career in his school’s long history of football excellence. On Saturday, they became state champions. Now, Austin Scott and Dave Shinskie are The Associated Press’ Pennsylvania high school football players of the year.
Scott, the Parkland senior tailback, was chosen as the Big School (Class AAAA-Class AAA) player of the year in statewide voting by writers and broadcasters. Shinskie, Mount Carmel’s senior quarterback, was selected as the Small School (Class AA-Class A) player of the year.
Scott set championship game records with 251 yards rushing and five touchdowns in a 34-12 victory over Woodland Hills for the PIAA Class AAAA championship. His big game capped the most extraordinary season a Pennsylvania runner has ever produced: 3,853 yards and 53 touchdowns, both state single-season records.
Scott’s season was full of exceptional feats, especially considering he missed all but one game of his junior season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
In Parkland’s season-opening 29-28 double-overtime loss to Bethlehem Catholic – its only loss of the season – Scott rushed for 288 yards and four touchdowns, erasing any doubts he was over the injury.
After that, he rushed for more than 400 yards once and more than 300 yards twice. Even in his final game, Scott was still doing things Parkland coach Rob Melosky had never seen.
“He made a move to the outside, stopped and literally hopped sideways away from a tackler,” Melosky said. “I’ve never seen him do that. He’s just amazing.”
Scott’s yardage broke the 1995 state mark of East Stroudsburg’s James Mungro by 764 yards, yet was efficiently done. Scott carried 357 times, or about 24 times per game, for a 10.8 yards per carry average.
Scott already has committed to Penn State. Shinskie has scholarship offers from Iowa, Vanderbilt, Temple and Indiana, but may choose a baseball career instead.
Shinskie had a less-explosive championship game than Scott, completing 11 of 20 passes for 195 yards and one touchdown, but it was enough for Mount Carmel to defeat Seton-La Salle 18-13 for the PIAA Class AA championship. It was Mount Carmel’s 727th victory, the most by any Pennsylvania high school.
Shinskie started 46 consecutive games after former Small School player of the year Nick Sebes was injured during the 1999 playoffs. Shinskie set school records for yardage (6,343), career completions (400), single-season completions (160) and single-season yardage (2,522) and threw at least one touchdown pass in 30 games.
This season, Shinskie completed 160 of 250 passes for 2,522 yards, 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His 64 percent completion rate was high for a quarterback at any level, much less a high school player.
Shinskie was complemented by a productive group of receivers, including Steve Matzura and Tim Wargo. Matzura set a school record for career receptions (118).
Mount Carmel has won the Class AA title during the last four even-numbered years, and produced the Small School player of the year each time.