5 WPIAL quarterbacks selected as finalists for 2025 Willie Thrower Award

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, January 21, 2026 | 1:24 PM

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Nolan DiLucia wrapped up his football career at Peters Township as the second-leading passer in WPIAL history with 8,819 career yards.

The three-year starter passed for 2,782 yards and 22 touchdowns this past fall in helping the Indians win the WPIAL Class 5A title. The Villanova recruit completed 177 of 286 passes.

He is one of five finalists revealed Wednesday for the Willie Thrower Award.

The annual award honors the top high school quarterback in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This year’s finalists are Avonworth’s Carson Bellinger, DiLucia, North Catholic’s Joey Felitsky, Upper St. Clair’s Ethan Hellmann and Pine-Richland’s Aaron “Oobi” Strader.

DiLucia and Felitsky also were award finalists last year.

The five will be celebrated at a luncheon March 28 at the Knead Community Café ballroom in New Kensington where the winner will be announced. The finalists were selected from balloting by a panel of coaches and media members. Twenty-seven quarterbacks from WPIAL schools, the City League and schools that play an independent schedule received votes.

Felitsky passed for 3,888 yards in 2024, a single-season total that ranks seventh in WPIAL history. He led the WPIAL with 46 touchdowns while completing 192 of his 257 attempts.

He finished as the WPIAL’s leading passer for the second year in a row, finishing with a combined 6,370 yards and 69 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons.

Strader led Pine-Richland to the WPIAL Class 5A championship game for the second year in a row.

The dual-threat signal caller helped the Rams average 45.5 points per game. He passed for 2,217 yards and 34 touchdowns and rushed for 762 yards and 12 more scores.

The junior has received scholarship offers from Akron, Kent State, Syracuse and Temple.

Hellmann, a four-year starter under center for USC, led the Panthers to the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals before falling in a close, low-scoring affair to eventual champion Peters Township.

The Fairmont State commit finished his senior season with 2,513 yards passing (160 of 239) with 32 touchdowns against just five interceptions. He also rushed for 252 yards and two scores on 54 attempts.

Bellinger helped Avonworth to a 15-0 season that concluded with a 31-7 victory over Northwestern Lehigh for the PIAA Class 3A championship in Hershey.

He completed 114 of 165 passes for 2,536 yards, 30 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He threw for 200-plus yards four times, including 253 in the PIAA semifinal against Penn Cambria and 249 in the state final.

The award is named after New Kensington native Willie Thrower, a two-time WPIAL champion (1946-47) who became the first Black quarterback to take a snap in an NFL game. The award winner receives a 29-pound replica of the Willie Thrower statue standing inside Valley’s football stadium.

Fort Cherry’s Matt Sieg won the Willie Thrower Award last year.

This is the sixth year for the award. The previous winners were Central Catholic’s Payton Wehner (2023), Armstrong’s Caden Olsen (2022, ’21) and Pine-Richland’s Cole Spencer (2020).

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Avonworth, North Catholic, Peters Township, Pine-Richland, Upper St. Clair