Trib HSSN May Madness: Pat McAfee, Plum vs. Steve Breaston, Woodland Hills

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Wednesday, May 27, 2020 | 9:00 AM


Over the course of the next month and a half, May Madness will determine who fans believe is the WPIAL Athlete of the Century.

HSSN has put together two 32-player brackets, one for the boys and one for the girls, of WPIAL alums. Outside of a few exceptions, the field is made up of former district players who excelled in more than one sport.

Each weekday, May Madness will have one matchup each on the boys and girls bracket with a little background info on each athlete found in a daily tale of the tape.

Starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday and running through 9 a.m. Thursday, fans can vote on the HSSN twitter page on the two athletes featured in this second-round matchup.

Check the HSSN website at noon Thursday for the matchup’s final results.

Here is the contest for the boys. Round 2, Day 3:

Pat McAfee vs. Steve Breaston is a battle of eastern suburb athletes whose jobs were to score points on the football field while filling the net in basketball and soccer.

Pat McAfee — Plum Class of 2005

(Football, soccer)

• Defeated Aaron Donald of Penn Hills in the first round, 51-49%.

• 2004 first-team all-conference kicker.

• Was 7 for 7 in field goals with his longest coming on a 48-yard boot. He showed off his strong leg consistently on kickoffs with 80% of them going into the end zone for Plum.

• Rated the No. 1 kicker in the nation in 2004 by Scout.com.

• While in high school in 2003, McAfee won the annual Punt, Pass and Kick national competition.

• Won a national kicking competition in Miami with a 65-yard field goal that led him to getting a college scholarship.

• Was a member of the WPIAL first-team boys soccer all-star team his sophomore, junior and senior years at Plum.

• Played college football as a kicker at West Virginia before moving on to become a punter in the NFL for Indianapolis over eight years.

Steve Breaston — Woodland Hills Class of 2002

(Football, basketball, track and field)

• Defeated Jonathan Baldwin of Aliquippa in the first round, 73-27%.

• 2001 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Terrific 25 football all-star.

• 2001 Gatorade Pa. football player of the year.

• Rivals.com ranked him as the third-best “athlete” in the country and he was ranked the third-best skill athlete and Northeast player of the year by Super Prep.

• As a quarterback, Breaston rushed for 2,545 career yards and scored 37 touchdowns.

• As a senior, Breaston threw for 600 yards, rushed for 1,718 yards and threw or ran for 34 touchdowns with 10 of those scoring runs coming on carries of 50 yards or more.

• In his junior and senior seasons combined, Breaston accounted for more than 5,000 all-purpose yards, including a pair of punt returns for a score in his senior season against McKeesport.

• Helped Woodland Hills win its third WPIAL Class AAAA championship in four years with a 41-6 rout of Central Catholic in the first year the games were played at Heinz Field in 2001. Breaston rushed for 219 yards on 15 carries, including an 87-yard run on the third play of the game. The Wolverines finished 14-1 after losing in the mud at Hershey to Neshaminy, 21-7, in the state championship game.

• Played two years of basketball at Woodland Hills and was on the track team his final two years. As a junior, he won the WPIAL 300-meter hurdles championship and took gold as a senior in the 400-meter race. He also finished fifth in the high jump.

• Inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2010.

• Played college football as a wide receiver at Michigan and played in the NFL for Arizona, Kansas City and New Orleans.

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