Shady Side Academy’s Dino Tomlin puts speed on display for college recruiters

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, July 21, 2018 | 5:00 PM

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A JUGS machine became a constant companion for Dino Tomlin this summer, as the Shady Side Academy standout spent at least a half-hour each day catching balls that hurtled out of the machine at 55 miles per hour.

Dropped passes didn’t pose much of an issue for Tomlin as a junior — he caught 30 passes for 714 yards and eight touchdowns, many of the deep variety, in nine games — but he still sensed an opportunity to improve.

“During the season, I think I only had like two drops, and they were in like the last two weeks,” Tomlin said. “It didn’t really show up during the season, but in the offseason, seven on sevens, things like that, I figured out my hands needed some work. As a receiver, you’ve got to catch the ball.”

With a potentially championship-caliber roster around him, that posed even more motivation for Tomlin this offseason — so much so that he plans to continue the training even when he gets comfortable with his catching ability.

“I still have a long way to go, but right now I’m happy with it,” he said.

The skill that gets Tomlin noticed the most is his speed, and for good reason. He won a PIAA track title in the hurdles this spring, and he ran a 4.52 40-yard dash at Nike Football’s “The Opening” in May in Canton, Ohio.

That 40-yard dash and the other drill numbers Tomlin put up at The Opening represented a significant improvement from the Under Armour camp in Cleveland just two months earlier.

And the scholarship offers have come rolling in for Tomlin: 15 since January and the most recent coming from Pitt in June. He plans to make his decision sometime during the season, depending on how he plays and how the recruiting landscape shakes out.

“At first, it’s a little weird because it feels like freshman year was just yesterday where you were dreaming about it,” said Tomlin, the son of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. “And then as time goes on, then you’re actually in the situation where you have to actually think about it. It’s not just a dream anymore. It’s immediate. That’s the cool part about it.

“The bad thing about it is sometimes I think I get slighted a little bit, but that’s just me being competitive.”

Busy with camps and other offseason work, Tomlin didn’t compete in summer track as he did in other years, so he said his conditioning isn’t where he wants it yet. He believes he will be ready for the season.

That’s good news for Shady Side Academy, which with Tomlin and quarterback Skyy Moore, has two of the top skill players in the WPIAL and championship aspirations.

Those title hopes, then, lie partly in Tomlin’s hands.

“We want to go all the way,” he said. “We’ve got the pieces to do that. We just take it a game at a time. That’s what we can do.”

Dino Tomlin

Shady Side Academy

Senior

5-11/165 pounds

WR/DB

Stars: 2

Division 1 offers: Albany, Army, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duquesne, Fordham, Holy Cross, Howard, Pitt, Princeton, Robert Morris, Toledo, William and Mary, Yale

2017 statistics: 30 receptions, 714 yards, 8 TDs; kickoff return TD; 2 interceptions

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.