PLYMOUTH — Blaise Sokach-Minnick visited big-time college football programs prior to his senior year at Wyoming Area.
When he is done playing quarterback, defensive end and special teams for the Warriors, Sokach-Minnick will look to continue his career as a long-snapping specialist. He agreed to a preferred walk-on opportunity at Penn State where he will study kinesiology.
“I didn’t really expect to get a scholarship off the bat,” said Sokach-Minnick, who considered Oregon State, Stanford, Penn State and Pittsburgh while visiting those schools and others. “Most of the (long-snapper) positions are where you have to go in and earn a scholarship.”
Sokach-Minnick is hoping to follow a path taken by his two older brothers.
Tristan Sokach-Minnick is a senior, who handles the long snapping duties at the University of Albany. He has appeared in 30 career games there and earned a full scholarship along the way.
Stephen Sokach-Minnick is a redshirt freshman, who made three game appearances in the 2019 season and backs up his brother, hoping to follow him into handling the duties after Tristan graduates.
Blaise Sokach-Minnick will try to produce similar results at Penn State.
“When I looked at schools, I wanted to be able to get a good education and play big-time football,” he said. “Penn State filled my biggest wants in a school.
“At the end of the day, Penn State just felt like home. I feel like their coaches are the ones who are going to bring out the best in me no matter what and it’s a great education for my major.”
Penn State’s tradition was another selling point.
“It’s a winning culture,” Sokach-Minnick said during an interview at Thursday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Media Day. “I’m excited to be there.”
Sokach-Minnick is fine with eventually altering his football plans from multiple positions, which require varying skill sets, to a very specialized skill that he reminds comes with other responsibilities.
“I like to think of it as I play defensive end and kind of like the physicality part of it,” he said. “I play quarterback and that’s more mental and more athletic position.
“Long-snapping kind of combines both of them. You’re on the line of scrimmage and you have to snap the ball. You have to take on linebackers in certain situations, but at the end of the day, Wyoming Area is a free-release team, so I run down the team and try to make a play on the punt returner.
“So the things I love about my other two positions are just combined as long snapper so it all comes together to make it a great position.”
