TribHSSN Preseason WPIAL Football All-Star team: Brad Birch, Gateway

By: Chris Harlan
Sunday, June 27, 2021 | 5:32 PM

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The Tribune-Review and the TribLive High School Sports Network are profiling each member of the 25-player Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star team. The players will be recognized July 22 during HSSN Media Day at Kennywood Park.

Brad Birch is a little like a stranger visiting a foreign land when he works out with Gateway’s football team, said his new coach. The sophomore quarterback is having a good time, even if he doesn’t know the language yet.

“I told him, you’re like a sailor on leave in Spain,” Gators coach Don Holl said. “You might find a party, but it’s strictly by accident. You really don’t know where you’re going with it or why. He doesn’t know all of our stuff yet, but he still had a hell of a good day.”

The analogy makes even more sense if you know Holl attended the U.S. Naval Academy.

“When he knows what he’s doing, he’s going to be ridiculous,” Holl said.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound quarterback transferred to Gateway in March from Jeannette, where he led the Jayhawks to a WPIAL title as a freshman. He and older brother Brett, a senior receiver with Division I talent, both moved into the Gateway district.

At Jeannette, Brad Birch passed for 1,643 yards and 30 touchdowns last season. He’s expected to win the starting quarterback job at Gateway, even though the team returns last year’s starter. But first, Birch must focus his efforts on learning the offense and mastering the terminology.

“He’s been humble,” Holl said. “He’s taking reps with the twos, carries the ball bag and has just been ‘a guy.’ But then when he’s been in there, he’s really pretty good.”

Birch could not be reached for comment.

The quarterback competed with his new teammates in a 7-on-7 tournament at Slippery Rock last week, and some of his throws there showed why Oregon already offered him a scholarship.

“He threw a corner route that had a super-tight window that may or may not have been the (correct) read,” Holl said. “In other words, he probably could have safely checked it down or thrown to the middle, but he fit it in there, in the only place it could be.

“It was a laser beam.”

That throw, fit between a safety and cornerback, is one other high school quarterbacks will try, but with far less success, Holl said. The difference is Birch’s arm strength.

“That ball (others throw) gets picked or knocked down incomplete,” Holl said. “He just casually zips it in there.”

Gateway quarterbacks have ranked among the WPIAL passing leaders since Holl was hired five years ago. Brady Walker passed for 2,820 yards in 2016 and 4,657 in ’17. Brendan Majocha threw for 2,179 yards in ’18, and Bryson Venanzio had 2,854 in ’19. Last year, then-junior Carsen Engleka finished with 1,054 yards in a season shortened by covid-19 issues.

So, there could be big numbers ahead for Birch.

His availability was in question for a time this summer when the WPIAL ruled him ineligible in May. The PIAA reversed that decision June 2, clearing him to play this fall.

Statistically, his best game last season was a seven-touchdown day against Bishop Canevin on Oct. 16. He completed 11 of 14 throws for 293 yards. He was the first freshman to start at quarterback at Jeannette, a program that also produced Terrelle Pryor.

MaxPreps named Birch a second-team freshman All-American.

“He has every possible talent that you need to do what he needs to do,” Holl said.

“He just needs to know what to do. It’s really hard to do something right consistently if you don’t know what it is.”