Burrell QB Alex Arledge stays positive during recruiting pause

By: Greg Macafee
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 | 3:10 PM

Like so many other juniors throughout the country, Burrell quarterback Alex Arledge was looking forward to his spring and summer.

During his junior season, Arledge’s first year starting, he completed 147 of 274 passes for 2,462 yards and 27 touchdowns. So the 6-foot-3 quarterback was expecting this to be a busy time for recruiting. But the coronavirus pandemic ended those hopes.

“I visited Lehigh, and that’s it,” Arledge said. “I had stuff scheduled for every weekend (this spring and summer), and it’s kind of a bummer for me, but I can only control what I can control. I was super excited for this time.”

Arledge has continued to stay active any way he can. He said he still is talking to 30 to 40 coaches from the Ivy and Patriot leagues, along with FCS and a few FBS schools, as well. He hopes to visit a few schools later this year.

“All the coaches seemed like they were excited to have me up, and I was excited to start making those visits,” Arledge said. “Hopefully all of this comes to an end soon, and I can go visit some of the schools, but we’ll have to see.”

Along with working on his speed and strength, Arledge has been throwing to his dad, Dave, and has been trying to come up with ways to stay competitive during the downtime.

Outside of playing video games with friends, Arledge has been trying to come up with throwing-related social-media challenges. Toward the end of March, Arledge started it off with a “Bucket Challenge” and threw a football into a bucket from about 50 yards away.

Sunday work!
50 yard bucket shot plus 20 mph winds!#BUCKETCHALLENGE
I nominate you!
⁦@ShawnLiotta⁩ ⁦@wpialsportsnews⁩ ⁦@Evolve2tenths⁩ ⁦@EdOBrien247⁩ ⁦@SportsByBLinder⁩ pic.twitter.com/nm8DBodiAx

— Alex Arledge (@alex_arledge12) March 29, 2020

On the same day, Central Valley quarterback Ameer Dudley answered with a throw of his own as he completed a deep pass into a “Funnel Ball” bucket.” The two videos have combined for 5,700 views on Twitter.

s/o to @alex_arledge12 for the challenge idea… but here’s a quarantine dot???? commentary by @CoachAmeer ???????? pic.twitter.com/91XYmAw5FD

— ameer dudley³ (@DudleyAmeer) March 29, 2020

“I’m good friends with a lot of quarterbacks from around the WPIAL because we all train at the Steelers complex,” Arledge said. “So we all have a pretty good relationship. We’re always giving each other challenges and workouts and stuff like that.”

Then, on April 25, Arledge and his dad came up with another social-media challenge. This time, Arledge stepped back 20 yards in his backyard and threw pass that popped a balloon. In the past three days, the video collected 5,000 views on Twitter.

????New Challenge????‼️ Quarantine Balloon POP ‼️@wpialsportsnews @Evolve2tenths @DudleyAmeer @ethan_reed4 @nalemada_10 @ArisHasley @hollywoodmathis pic.twitter.com/UAH3gtcxaR

— Alex Arledge (@alex_arledge12) April 25, 2020

“Me and my Dad were just trying to think of ways to make things interesting during this time,” Arledge said.

“My dad came up with the balloon one, and the bucket one was just something I came up with when I was at the field. I saw the garbage can and was just like, ‘Let me try this real quick,’ and I hit it on my first try.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Burrell