As Omaha and Overtime prepare to host the first-ever high school football national championship, ESPN is giving the event its big game treatment.
According to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel, play-by-play man Joe Tessitore and analyst Dan Orlovsky will be on the call for the matchup between Corner Canyon (Utah) and St. Frances Academy (Maryland), which will air on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. The event, which will take place at Under Armour Stadium in Baltimore, was first announced last month, billing itself as the first true high school football national title game.
Whether it catches on as an annual staple of the sports calendar remains to be seen, but ESPN is certainly treating the event like a big deal. In addition to giving it a favorable spot on its programming calendar, the network has now assigned one of its top college football broadcasters in Tessitore, and most prominent NFL analysts in Orlovsky to call the matchup, which will feature several high-profile recruits, including Corner Canyon quarterback Helaman Casuga (Texas A&M) and several St. Frances defenders, including Jireh Edwards (Alabama), Khmari Bing (Ohio State), Wayne Henry (Auburn), Amauri Polydor (Virginia Tech), and Raylaun Henry (Texas A&M).
The star of the show, however, remans Casuga, who plays for the same program that also produced future first-round quarterbacks in Zach Wilson and Jaxson Dart.
“In the last generation where you have the hyper scrutiny and attention on recruiting, programs have funneled their way to be national programs,” Tessitore told Front Office Sports. “The prestigious academic boarding schools of Connecticut are now where national recruits go because they have post graduates and the SEC is recruiting Avon Old Farms and Choate and Loomis Chafee and Andover, Exeter, and Deerfield Academy [in Massachusetts] to the schools in North Jersey, Georgia, Texas, Florida, and California West Coast. Add what we see with Corner Canyon in Utah—these are powerhouses where kids know that if you play at those places you’re talking about 10, 15, 18 Division-1 recruits a year. You’re just starting to see a funneling of talent.”
Suffice it to say, there will be no shortage of star power on the field in Baltimore on Wednesday. And the same can now also be said of the game’s broadcast booth.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.