‘I Need this Opportunity:’ Rising WPIAL TE Fights Through Injury to Keep Recruiting Momentum Rolling

Suiting up for the 2024 high school football season looked bleak for Seneca Valley tight end Adam Gehm.

In April, he took to X to announce that he would “miss the 2024 season” due to impending surgeries on both of his feet.

“It all started my sophomore year. It was week one. I started feeling in both my feet – it was a developing stress fracture – which I played the whole season on. It was hurting, but my trainer couldn’t identify what it was. They tried to let it heal throughout the winter on its own and it didn’t heal. That’s when I sat down with the doctor, he said, ‘We’re going to have to put a screw in it and you’ll probably be out for football because it takes around four months a foot, so eight months,” Gehm told Pittsburgh Sports Now.

With that news, Gehm – who stands at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds – was devastated at first and thought about his recruiting process. A prospect’s junior season is often the most important year during the entire process.

“It was hard to take in and really unexpected. I had a path set in my head and it was getting knocked off. I posted thinking, ‘It’s okay, I’ll work harder than everyone else,’” he said.

After Gehm had already posted the news on social media, his doctor presented him with an option that provided some optimism. Instead of getting surgery on both feet, get it done on the right foot, which would allow him to play in the fall. Then, he would see how the left foot feels throughout the season.

“When I got the idea brought up to me that I can play, my eyes brightened up and I was like, ‘I need this opportunity and I’ll take it.

“We do the surgery in April and it’s basically fully cleared now. I sit down with my doctor and he says, ‘It’s a tolerable injury to play with.’ I played one season with two, so he gave me an option, he said, ‘If you want to go for it, we’ll meet every week or so. We’ll get you everything you need to go. Worst case scenario, you can’t do it anymore and you get surgery mid-season.’”

With the surgery complete, Gehm believes he can fight through the season to showcase his talents for college coaches.

“I think I’ll be able to handle it,” he said. “I’ve already pushed through one whole season with two feet, I think I can handle it with one. Right when he told me that, I made two or three phone calls and talked to a few coaches, and they said go for it. Junior year being such a staple in the recruiting process, it’s an important year and I’m willing to fight through the pain. I talked to my doctor, and he said there will be no long-term issues.”

Gehm is one of the emerging talents in the WPIAL Class of 2026 as he now holds five offers from Wisconsin, Syracuse, Miami (Oh.), Toledo and most recently Maryland.

Adam Gehm

The Maryland offer came at the end of a weekend trip to visit the Terrapins in College Park, Md., and he felt welcomed from the moment he stepped on campus.

“When I walked in, they were all greeting me and they were all happy to see that I came. I kind of knew they were interested in me right off the bat and I was kind of expecting an offer later in the visit,” Gehm said.

Gehm is being recruited by Maryland tight ends coach Kevin Sumlin, who kept it real with Gehm on how they envision using him.

“The way he recruited me is more of a transparent way. He’s not trying to win me over with flashy stuff like other schools. He broke it down and showed me game film and how they use tight ends, what sets I would be in and how that compares to my skill set and I think that is really important to my recruiting process. I saw the facilities and liked all that stuff. Definitely going to be a school I get down to in the fall,” Gehm said.

With Gehm now working out fully and recently receiving an offer from Maryland, it’s safe to say that his recruitment is back on track.

“Now that I’m getting work in, that’s why it’s starting to pick back up. I can finally tell coaches, ‘Come to games, come to workouts.’ I feel like that is what they want to see. Coming off of a single surgery, seeing me run is going to be so important and I feel like a lot of other schools that haven’t offered me yet are waiting to get one or two games of film and I feel like that’s when they are going to hop on,” he said.

In addition to his offers, Gehm is receiving interest from Penn State, Pitt, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Indiana. He hopes to visit each program for a game this fall to get a better feel for the school.

Of those schools, Wisconsin was his first Power Four offer and has been recruiting him for quite some time.

“They were the first school to hop on. They reached out to me last season and wanted me to get down to a game. That’s important because a lot of other schools, they see you get an offer and then they hop on. It’s meaningful that Wisconsin was a school to recruitment from the ground up,” Gehm said.

Pitt was another school that has been involved in Gehm’s recruitment since early on. However, he is still waiting for the Panthers to offer.

“They are willing to bear with me,” Gehm said regarding his surgery. “I was getting more recruited with Tim Salem there and when he left, I noticed a drop-off in recruiting. They have still shown interest in me and I’m probably going to get up there for a game, too.”

While he doesn’t have a “dream offer,” Gehm is hoping that the in-state power Penn State calls and extends one.

“I’ve been watching them since I was little,” he said. “They have a really flashy recruiting style. They take a ton of big recruits. It would be great to get an offer from them.”

Gehm plans on being fully cleared by Aug. 1, so he can then focus on his season preparation. Ideally, he wants to put forth his best effort during the first few weeks of the season to showcase his abilities for coaches and then the rest is to be determined.

“My goal is to get a really solid first few games where I’m at the peak of my health. If I get a few games of solid film, I’d feel comfortable taking the safe route and get the surgery,” Gehm said.

SOPHOMORE SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Adam gehm
Seneca valley high school (6a)
Class of 2026
Tight end/Defensive end https://t.co/Zg9q5niBwh @wpialsportsnews @210ths @thelab_fb @PghSportsNow @RivalsFriedman @PRZPAvic @BrianDohn247 @Cover3_ATH

— Adam Gehm (@adam_gehm) October 28, 2023