Carey's Corner

FROM THE MALVERN ARCHIVES

A LOOK BACK

"SO WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO COLLEGE?"

2025 EDITION

July, 2026

Every year I want to be able to pass on to you where the current graduating class of football players have decided extend their playing days. This is the fourth year in a row and represents the 2025 edition. 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022. Other years can be found on previous Carey’s Corners. This story is a celebration of this year’s seniors and where they are taking their athletic and academic talents to the college of their choice. For those Friars who want to move up and move on the Malvern Prep staff does an incredible job of helping the players continue their career at the next level. For the size of the school, Malvern places athletes in college at a higher rate than many other area high schools that are two to three times larger than Malvern’s enrollment. If you look at sports as a pyramid you know that the higher you move up the numbers begin to thin as the competition gets tougher. Each year as I do research I try to find something extra to add to the stories. The chart below popped up on my LinkedIn feed. Go figure. I carved out the football, baseball and lacrosse numbers from the entire chart that showed participation in all college sports, both men and women.

The 8% D3 participation rate in lacrosse is due in part to the fact that there are 250 D3 men’s lacrosse programs and only 78 D1 programs. Another stat to ponder is of the 77,204 high school players who played in college only 257 were selected in the 2026 NFL draft (does not include free agents). That’s .003% if you are calculating. It is .0002% of high school players if you are really digging.. Shout out here to MP grads Carl and Ryan Nassib who both made the grade.

My hope is by posting this information/story that it will save the guys endless hours of repetition and illustrate what an impressive accomplishment it is to play at the next level. Call it a public service announcement. We have all been there. It is spring of your senior year and the $64,000 question which everyone who has ever known you on planet Earth wants to know, "Where are you going to college?" Think back to your senior year in high school and recall how many times you answered that question AND how many times you had to explain your answer. It usually lasted 15- 20 minutes until you finished, BUT, you repeated it over and over and over again until the cows came home. You repeated your explanation to aunts, uncles, cousins, distant relatives who you have seen once in your life, neighbors, friends of neighbors, the postman. Okay, I admit to going overboard just a bit, but I think you get where I am going with this.

This article has 2 parts. The 1st part is current 2025 football seniors and where they chose to play football next year. Jackson Ford, Zeke Bates, Trey Gibson, and Max Mohring will take their incredible talents to the D1 level. Schools like Boston College, Ohio State, Michigan Virginia Tech and Kentucky were a small list of colleges interested in their services. Jackson Ford probably had the most interesting spring with the change of the head coach at Penn State. Should he stay or should he go? I am sure there were quite a few colleges who jumped back into the Jackson Ford Sweepstakes and tried to get him to change his mind. He stayed true to his original commitment when many others bailed out on Penn State. As a result, his loyalty to Penn State has already made him a fan favorite. At 6'5' and 252 lbs. Jackson looks to make opposing defenses miserable as an edge rusher. Word has it that he is already turning heads at summer camp. Trey Gibson was a plug him in anywhere and watch him play kind of guy. When you have successful teams and seasons, there are always players who contribute all over the field. That describes Trey. He was a lock down corner, played receiver and made an impact on special teams. No contribution was bigger than his 92-yard kick-off return TD in a 31-24 win against DC power Gonzaga. James Madison is getting a true "team player". Max Mohring has some good DNA floating around. His dad Mike, a graduate of West Chester East and Pitt played for the Chargers at the NFL level. As an OLB, Max was involved in 38 total tackles. He also added an interception and 5 tackles for losses. Max was the kind of linebacker who was always in the right spot. After originally leaning toward Kentucky, Max and his family decided on Northwestern. Great combination of academics and athletics. Max follows fellow Friar alum Connor Mahoney'12 to the Purple and White. I had the opportunity to coach Connor at MP. I wish I could say I made him the player he was but Connor was a naturally gifted lineman. For MP, Connor also starred on the defensive line. He had the size, the strength and the agility. Zeke Bates was Malvern’s workhorse, go to running back in 2025. Zeke did it the hard way as all of his team leading 13 TDs were on the ground. His huge games against Imhotep, Salesianum and Episcopal were keys to those Malvern wins. As you might imagine colleges took notice. Boston College, Wake Forest, VA Tech and UConn were all in the running, but in the end, Zeke chose to take his talents to the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

Both Bryce Willey and Ian Gopez are going FCS (Football Championship Subdivision). Sam Kumpon, Joey Sucher, Sam Winner, and Joe Rosano were recruited by multiple school on the D3 levels. Sam Winner, Bryce Willey, and Joey Sucher were all my favorite kind of "big skill fatties" up front. These are the guys that get no credit when things go well and most of the blame when things go bad. Before anyone yells at me please know I am saying that with tongue in cheek. Sam Kumpon and Joe Rosano were HBack/LBs. Sam follows on the heels on one of Malvern’s best- former Malvern QB Ian Mitchell. Ian was an IA MVP (2005) and went on to re-write multiple records while at Dickinson. For his accomplishments Ian currently resides on the Dickinson Wall of Fame. Rosano was a very active LB, finishing 4th in total tackles, behind Simmons, Hammond and Novak. Joe also added a pick 6 against Haverford School.

And last but not least I can talk about the kicker, Ian Gopez. Didn’t forget you Ian. Over my coaching career I have spent a lot of time working with the special teams. There is no one more special than your kicker- kick offs, extra points and field goals. Skills that need to be automatic and skills that coaches sometimes take for granted. That said, Ian was pretty much automatic. To the best of my research, he is #1 in total points for a season with 39 extra points and 7 FGs, for a total of 60 points. His 39 XPTs places him 3rd all time. The record for FGs in a season is 8. There are 6 guys with 7 FGs. Ian is one of them. Malvern has had a string of very good, big leg, legit kickers. Ian can move onto the next level at Sacred Heart knowing he is one of the “best of the best”.

Part 2 is the multi-sport athlete. Malvern football has had great success over the years because some of their best football players played another sport in college. Football was their secondary not primary sport. This year was no different. The MP lacrosse team had an incredible run against not only some of the best programs in the area but also the top high school lacrosse programs in the country. Mac Crawford is going to the University of Richmond. If you follow D1 lacrosse you know that the Spiders made a strong run this year. Richmond finished 14-2, losing to Notre Dame in the regular season and to Duke in the post season. This is a program on the way up and they got an excellent player in Mac. Notre Dame got a two for one in Danny Riely and Dylan Novak. In 2026 Notre Dame just missed their 3rd title in 4 years. That should be a good indication of the quality of the Notre Dame lacrosse program. For Malvern, Riely and Novak contributed on both sides of the ball. Riely rushed for 274 yards, caught for 228 yards, had 2 rush TDs, 1 receiving TDs and 1 pick 6 TD. As a receiver Novak was what I would call” the money in the bank guy”- 5 of his 12 catches went for TDs. He was 3rd on the team in total tackles and also had a pick 6 (Imhotep). It’s the kind of performance I have come to expect from multi-sport players at Malvern. And speaking of multi-sport athletes, then there is Jackson Melconian. Not too shabby when your league’s football MVP is going to play baseball in college. Jackson is the 11th, in a long line of stud Malvern QBs, to garner this prestigious award. (the IA MVPS are under MP History tab). Jackson’s baseball skills served him well in football. Situational awareness, anticipation and the ability to succeed under duress were all attributes that made him a major two-year contributor. Sometimes I felt like he had eyes in the back of his head. Jackson’s accomplishments dot the QB record books for Malvern. To name a few, he was 3rd all-time career yards and 5th all-time career TDs. To see all of his records, check out Tops in Quarterback in the MP history tab. I didn’t play baseball but follow it enough to know "go south". Vanderbilt, his choice, played 58 games last year (just a few more than his senior year at Malvern). If Jackson didn’t play baseball he could have easily played football in college. The same could be said about Riely and Novak.

With the transfer portal and NILS who knows what the future holds for them. One thing I do know, as Malvern guys, whatever they do and wherever they finish, I am confident that they will represent themself, their family and Malvern Prep. Take a look at the range and quality of schools these Malvern Prep student-athletes chose. They are to be congratulated on a job well done.

This story is always a good example of why Malvern football is consistently good year in and year out. It is why I enjoy highlighting the graduating seniors every year. Good luck to all the players.

More to come....