Mars’ Michael Carmody puts focus on future in football

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, June 29, 2018 | 8:30 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 WPIAL Football All-Star team.

The players will be recognized at 2 p.m. July 24 during HSSN Media Day at Kennywood Park.

Around this time last year, Michael Carmody traveled to a seven-on-seven tournament with Mars, but wasn’t convinced he really wanted to play football for the Planets in the fall.

Now a year later, he’s among the top college football recruits in the state with more than a dozen FBS offers.

“It’s crazy,” he said, “to think that last summer I was maybe not even going to play football. Now I can’t imagine not playing.”

As Carmody approaches his junior season, coach Scott Heinauer already sees an athlete who’s much different than the sophomore who returned to football last August after a year away.

“He was very raw, and he’s refined his talents,” Heinauer said. “People are going to be amazed by what he was last year to what he’s going to be this year.”

Carmody was a key starter on Mars’ basketball team that won the WPIAL Class 5A title and finished as the state runner-up last winter. He remains a two-sport athlete, but training for football has overtaken basketball as his priority.

“He’s a kid that’s going to turn a lot of heads,” Heinauer said. “He’s bigger, stronger, he’s physical. He’s 6-foot-6 and 268 pounds. That’s a big kid. Last year at this time he was playing AAU basketball. He’s now focused on football.”

Carmody has added 15 pounds since last season, but Heinauer also sees added confidence.

“I feel a lot more confident knowing that I played a year,” Carmody said. “Knowing that I’m going in every day and working hard, lifting and working on football skills, I’ll be a lot more confident on the field.”

Carmody holds 16 offers. His first came from Pitt on Jan. 18. His most recent was Penn State on May 30. He attended camps this summer at Pitt, Duke, Ohio State and Virginia Tech, and said he could visit Penn State before fall arrives. He said he’d like to commit next summer.

Heinauer uses him as a tight end and defensive end at Mars, but recruiters project him as an offensive tackle.

Carmody entered last season as somewhat of an unknown, but became a starter right away and earned second-team all-conference honors. Now, his scholarship offers could make him a target — similar to how basketball teams tested his Notre Dame-bound brother last season.

“Everyone was coming out for Robby,” Carmody said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the same way in football, but there’s definitely a different mindset going into this year.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Mars