It didn’t take long for Ty Yuhas, a three-star defensive lineman at perennial WPIAL powerhouse Central Catholic, to choose Pitt when he was offered. For a defensive lineman, it should be pretty clear as to why. Over the last four years, Pitt has finished within the top four in the entire country in sacks. Even during their current 1-4 2023 season, the team sits tied for 11th in the country in total sacks with 14. Safe to say, it’s a great program to go to if you’re a defensive lineman.
“Why would I wait?” Yuhas asked rhetorically. “There’s no reason to wait.”
Excited to learn under defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, Yuhas committed to Pitt almost immediately after he was offered. He’s shown no wavering in his support for the program, and when we spoke after Central Catholic’s 49-6 win over Canon-McMillan he denied even considering anyone else as soon as the Pitt offer came in.
“Not really,” said Yuhas when asked if there was another choice. “As soon as Pitt offered, I committed a day later.”
That type of commitment makes it seem like Yuhas grew up a diehard Pitt fan. And while he did say he was a fan of the team growing up, when asked to share memories of his Pitt fandom, he instead chose to reflect on the WPIAL stars that went through their hometown college. He mentioned names like David Green, Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin.
While he didn’t outright say it, it appeared that the thought of being another big WPIAL name to star at Pitt was a key reason for choosing the school. An interesting wrinkle, especially as some in the Pitt fanbase have been vocal about seemingly losing many top WPIAL recruits to rival Penn State during the Pat Narduzzi-James Franklin era.
But there are likely many key reasons in what helped Yuhas decide on Pitt that go beyond the WPIAL connection. As stated earlier, Partridge’s success as the defensive line coach is something that Yuhas said he’s been “watching over the years.” Yuhas’s ultimate dream is to make the NFL. A program that has sent many defensive linemen to the NFL over the years – including the best-ever in Aaron Donald, even if that wasn’t under Partridge – likely helped sell Pitt to Yuhas right away. The dream to be the next WPIAL star not just at Pitt, but in the Pros.
For now though, Yuhas remains at Central Catholic where his team has their eyes set on, not just a WPIAL title, but a state championship. With 11 current D1 recruits on the roster, including Yuhas himself, Central Catholic is clearly a serious contender this year. That fact isn’t lost on Yuhas, who preaches that’s the standard of the program year in and year out.
“Every year it’s a state title,” said Yuhas who listed off past state champions at Central. “A state title is the standard set every year. We’re not playing our schedule, we’re playing ourselves. We’re playing the standard at the school.”
Central Catholic is currently undefeated and is set to face Pine Richland, another traditional WPIAL power, in a 6A match-up that Yuhas is excited about. His mind is currently still on his senior season as given away by context clues. For example, he said that his favorite thing to do outside of football is hang out with his current teammates and mentioned that he has no idea on what he wants to major at Pitt next year.
In the future he is looking to become the next WPIAL star to walk through Pitt. To join the likes of past Central Catholic alumni like Hamlin, Sal Sunseri, Cal Admonitis, and Dan Marino to utilize Pitt as a path to the pros. He’ll be different than those past players though. As he’ll have the luxury of the strong foundation set by the defensive line group.
H2P!