Tech’s Laskey has Fayette County roots

During Saturday’s Georgia Tech 21-10 win over Pitt, the Panthers’ radio color commentator Pat Bostick said that Georgia Tech’s Zach Laskey runs like a Western Pennsylvania running back.
Truth be told, the 6-1, 214-pound Laskey has Western Pennsylvania roots. His bloodline is all Fayette County. His father, John, and mother, Tricia, are both Uniontown High School graduates. Zach was born at Mon Valley Hospital and lived in Upper St. Clair until he was 7, when his father moved to Georgia to take a job as an air traffic controller at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The Fayette County bloodlines run deep. Zach’s mother is the niece of legendary Uniontown High School basketball coach Abe Everhart.
“My mom always told me about that,” Laskey stated. “I was aware of the history and connection. I can still remember going to Upper St. Clair High School and watching them when I was just a little guy.”
Laskey started playing football at age seven and had a stellar high school career at Starr’s Mill High School, where he earned three varsity letters as a running back, linebacker and safety. He served one year as a team captain and played for coach Chad Phillips. Laskey led team to a regional title and state runner-up in 2010. Laskey rushed for 1,515 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior and set 11 school records in 2010. He also earned two letters in basketball and four in track.
“I had a real nice high school career,” Laskey recalled. “We ended up going to the state championship my senior year. Football was always the main sport. I played basketball and ran track to stay in shape for football. I wasn’t too bad at the other sports, so I just stayed with it. Football is really competitive in Georgia and we played some of the top teams in the state every year.”
Laskey was the 4A player of the year in Georgia and made first-team All-State, all-region and all-county as a senior. He ranked as the No. 12 fullback prospect nationally by Scout, ranked the 39th-best prospect in the state by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It’s always nice to get recognition,” Laskey offered. “But you can’t really think too much about it because you’ve got to keep working. That’s all things that you’ve done in the past, so you’ve just got to make sure that you don’t get caught up in that kind of stuff.”
Laskey got another taste of Western Pennsylvania when he attended a combine at Ringgold High School and was highly rated as a college prospect when he graduated from high school in 2010.
“I ended up winning the running back championship there,” Laskey said. “That was cool, that was fun. I did one here in Georgia and I got second overall and then I went up to Pittsburgh to see how the competition level was so I could place myself in the country and I did well there.”
“Georgia Tech was my number one school because it’s close to home,” Laskey explained. “I moved here when I was seven and I’ve always watched them play Georgia, so I’ve always been a pretty big Georgia Tech fan. There were some other schools involved, but Georgia Tech was the main one. Central Florida was involved and a lot of schools became interested after I got my offer from Georgia Tech.”
Laskey has been a force for the Yellow Jackets. As a freshman in 2011 he played in eight games and was Georgia Tech’s primary punt returner the first two months of the season. He had a team-high 11 punt returns for 94 yards (8.5 yards per attempt), had a long return of 28 yards and recorded eight tackles on defense and special teams. The Yellow Jackets finished with a record of 8-5, 5-3 in ACC play to finish in a tie for second place in the Coastal Division. They were invited to the Sun Bowl where they were defeated by Utah.
“It was huge to play as a freshman,” Laskey said. “Throughout the process you just get adjusted to the speed and can’t really simulate that kind of speed in practice, getting out there helped me out and got me acclimated to the speed of the game. I returned kicks in high school, so I came here and coach told me that was my opportunity to play and I kind of took that as a challenge.”
Laskey was moved to B-back on offense in the spring of 2012 and quickly adapted to the position.
“I was so happy because I was originally brought in as a running back,” Laskey stated. “Then due to depth at that position they moved me to safety. After the season they moved me back to running back. I was pretty excited because that is my natural position.”
As a sophomore in 2012 Laskey played in all 14 games and started six times. He led the team in rushing yards per game (49.8), rushed 133 times for a team-best 697 yards, averaged 5.2 yards per carry and had just one rushing attempt for negative yardage. He had six receptions for 122 yards (20.3 yards per catch) and two touchdowns, had 819 all-purpose yards and had seven offensive plays of 20-plus yards, including two longer than 50 yards. Tech finished 7-7, 5-3 in the ACC. Laskey had six carries for 60 yards in the win over USC in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.
The 21-year-old Laskey has helped Georgia Tech to a 6-3 record this season, 5-2 in the ACC. He has 427 yards rushing for six touchdowns and has caught three passes for 54 yards and one touchdown. A junior, Laskey hopes to take a shot at pro football.
“I think I’m going to try the pros to see how it pans out,” Laskey said. “If pro football doesn’t work out, I’m interested in getting into coaching.”