Nania ready for YSU season

By Joe Scalzo | December 16, 2010 at 12:10a.m.

Dante Nania

Fresh off a 1,500-yard passing season at Hempfield Area, senior quarterback Dante Nania has turned his attention to wrestling season, where he’s off to a 5-0 start.

Even better, he’s doing at 195 pounds — 20 below the 215-pound limit for his weight class.

“My brother has to cut 10 pounds and still perform at practice,” he said. “I can eat.”

That doesn’t mean Nania isn’t hungry.

After verbally committing to Youngstown State’s football team in the summer, the strong-armed QB said he’s looking forward to joining the team next fall, even though he knows he’ll be competing with Missouri Valley Football Conference freshman of the year Kurt Hess.

“I’m just excited to get up to Youngstown and see how it goes,” said Nania.

When asked if he expects to redshirt, Nania said, “I’ll do whatever they tell me to do. But I like to compete. I’m a competitor.”

Although Hempfield struggled on the field — the Spartans went 1-8 — Nania had a solid year, throwing for 1,512 yards and 15 TDs to earn first team all-conference honors. A pass-first quarterback who also has good mobility, he was also named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Fab 22 team for the East Zone and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Terrific 25 for the Greensburg area.

Nania said committing early allowed him to focus on the field and not recruiting.

“I just wanted to have a stress-free senior year,” said Nania, who plans to major in communications and enter either public relations or sales. “I didn’t have to worry about performing out of reach to get offers.

“Youngstown came in and offered me in late June and it was always one of my top schools. I wanted to go to a school I could play at, and I think I can play at Youngstown.”