High School Football America

High School Football America

Phil Stambaugh, Pius X head coach
Copyright: High School Football America

I'd like to thank everyone for making October another record-breaking month for visitors to High School Football America and The High School Football Huddle.

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to spend some time chronicling my travels back east to Pennsylvania to continue filming my documentary Roseto's Royals that examines the relationship between the town of Roseto and its high school football team, the Pius X Royals.

Later this week, you'll learn about how you can become part of the project at KickStarter.com.

But until then...

This afternoon, I was on the practice field to watch the 10-1 Royals prepare for this Saturday's District XI Class A championship game against Shenandoah. Pius is the third smallest school playing high school football in Pennsylvania.

According to the latest enrollment numbers from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association in 2009, Pius had 63 boys enrolled in the school. Imani Christian is the smallest school with 42 boys, according to the PIAA; Bucktail, which lost 56-34 to Pius this season, has 53 boys enrolled. Imani, in Pittsburgh, just ended its first year of varsity football, playing a six-game schedule.

While the Royals may be small in enrollment numbers, they have some big football numbers.

The Royals are led by second-year head coach Phil Stambaugh, who was a record-setting quarterback at Lehigh University and played in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

A.J. Long, Pius X Quarterback (Sophomore)
Copyright: High School Football America

Stambaugh, who also played for two years in NFL Europe in Germany (Rhein Fire and Berlin Thunder), runs a wide-open pro-style offense that is building sophomore quarterback A.J. Long into a Division I prospect.

Last year, Long set a Pennsylvania record for passing yards by a freshman. Long threw for 2,852 yards last season with 28 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

So far this season, the 6-foot, 180-pounder has thrown for 2,779 yards with 35 TDs and 8 picks. Long, who has also rushed for 622 yards and 14 touchdowns, has completed 164 of 240 passes (68.3%). His quarterback rating is 133, according to MaxPreps.

If Long continues on his current pace over his next two seasons, he'll shatter every state passing record.