When Omaha Productions and Overtime collaborate to air the first high school football national championship game on ESPN2 on Wednesday night, there will be a high-end announce team.
Joe Tessitore and Dan Orlovsky will be on the call for the game, in which Corner Canyon (Utah) faces Saint Frances Academy (Maryland), a rep for Omaha confirmed to Front Office Sports.
As is the case in college football where there are certain programs that are breeding grounds for NFL talent, specific prep high schools have emerged as high-volume talent sources for Power 4 conferences.
“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 FOS. “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 Chaffee 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 I recruits a year. You’re just starting to see a funneling of talent.”
Corner Canyon, which is in Wednesday night’s game, didn’t even exist until 2013. But in the last 12 years, it’s become a breeding ground for quarterbacks. Giants rookie Jaxson Dart played there, as did Zach Wilson, who was the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Devin Brown, a five-star recruit who went to Ohio State before transferring to Cal, played there as well. So did Wilson’s younger brother, Isaac, who’s now a quarterback at Utah.
Corner Canyon’s current starting quarterback, Helaman Casuga, is committed to Texas A&M’s 2026 recruiting class. “You’re talking about a place that, in the span of a decade, is producing five to six massive quarterback recruits,” Tessitore said. “They score 50 points a game.”
Styles make fights, and Saint Frances is a defensive powerhouse. Tessitore described safety Jireh Edwards as “the next Ed Reed.” He is committed to Alabama’s 2026 class. The other starting safety, Khmari Bing, is committed to Ohio State. Another defensive back, Wayne Henry, is committed to Auburn, and cornerback Amauri Polydor flipped his commitment from Penn State to Virginia Tech when James Franklin landed in Blacksburg. Another cornerback, Raylaun Henry, is committed to Texas A&M.
The game takes place at Under Armour Stadium in Baltimore at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 on Wednesday.
