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WVU back at the Lack

White and his brothers are several of the high profile players to come from Lackawanna.
White and his brothers are several of the high profile players to come from Lackawanna.

Nestled in Scranton, Pennsylvania roughly five hours from Morgantown is Lackawanna College. If you follow West Virginia's recruiting efforts it’s a name that should sound quite familiar by now.

That’s because it’s a place that has been quite kind to the West Virginia football program over the years.

One of the nation’s premier junior colleges, Lackawanna has produced a number of high-profile athletes that have gone on to play in Morgantown. The list consists of Kevin White, Mark Glowinski, Ka’Raun White, Kyzir White, Josh Francis, Trevon Wesco and Dayron Wilson just to name a few in recent years.

And it goes back even further than recent times with offensive tackle Brock Holland representing the first player to go to West Virginia from Lackawanna in 1996 followed by defensive back Shawn Hackett and several others finding their way to Touchdown City.

It’s developed into a pipeline of sorts for the football program that doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon with the recent commitment of yet another Falcon to the West Virginia football program.

At times it’s almost hard for head coach Mark Duda, who’s been at the school since it opened in 1993, to grasp given his ties to the University of Maryland but it’s a connection that has been strongly established over time on both ends of the relationship.

One obvious factor working in favor of the Mountaineers is the proximity to the school and the fact that Pennsylvania has always been a priority state on the recruiting trail for West Virginia, said Ryan Dorchester, director of player personnel at WVU.

“It’s really the closest real junior college we have that gets talent and they do a good job of recruiting the local areas and getting players,” Dorchester said.

But perhaps even more important is that almost all of the players that have gone on to suit up for the Mountaineers have not only played, but developed into significant contributors for the program.

That success breeds success on the recruiting trail as the next batch of prospects is able to observe the accomplishments of former Falcon players such as White and Glowinski in Morgantown and onto the NFL.

“When you go back through it these guys have all been contributors on the field. Every kid from Lackawanna that they have taken has been a player, so the track record is good,” Duda said.

“If you look at the quality of players and the character of the kids that have come out of there why wouldn’t you go back?” Dorchester added.

It also doesn’t hurt that the Mountaineers typically have several Falcons on their roster at any one time. Because the players develop close bonds at the junior college level due to so many shared experiences and a burning desire to make it to the next level, it makes the decision a lot easier for prospects when they can surround themselves with several of their former teammates.

“It’s hard to go to West Virginia and not go there when all those guys are sitting there,” Duda said.

Because of its status as one of the top junior colleges in the nation, Lackawanna has seen practically every school in the country attempt to recruit from its ranks with Oklahoma, Penn State, Baylor and Rutgers just a couple of the schools that have lured prospects from the school in recent years.

A total of 19 Falcons signed at the division one level last year and this class also has its fair share of talent, Duda said.

But one thing that has set the Mountaineers coaching staff apart from several other schools is that they stay on top of Lackawanna players from start to finish developing relationships and in many instances becoming the first school to extend a scholarship offer to prospects there, Duda said.

“Coach Holgorsen and the coaches have done a good job. They stay on top of our guys,” he said.

That stems from a trust not only with the coaching staff at Lackawanna but the product that they have produced over the years. That trust is key in the evaluation of each prospect and has West Virginia as a contender for almost every prospect that is at the school.

“They have a chance to get good players in my program every year. West Virginia is always going to continue to get their guys,” Duda said.

And that is reciprocated from the West Virginia coaching staff which trusts the judgement of the coaches at Lackawanna. While it's impossible to predict the future, the Falcon coaches have been straight forward with their evaluations.

"You look for the ones that will shoot you straight on a guy," Dorchester said.

Making things even easier to form that trust in the junior college program is the hard regimen that players go through at Lackawanna meaning that they are prepared to contribute at the next level, while also rarely having issues academically. That is especially key with junior college prospects that can get held up by unfinished work in the classroom.

All of the prospects that West Virginia has recruited as of late from Lackawanna were high character prospects that were ready to contibute on the field, Dorchester said.

The connection between the junior college and West Virginia is something that has been good for both parties over the years and it doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.

“I don’t think there is another school out there that from a branding perspective can say come here you’re going to graduate and get a shot to play in the NFL,” Dorchester said.

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