These MVL standouts sought D-I offers. The transfer portal, recruiting left them frustrated

Posted by author February 19, 2025 Football

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Coach West: ‘There are going to be some good high school football players that aren’t going to get the opportunity to play college football’

DRESDEN — It took far longer than anyone expected, but Tri-Valley football’s fearsome foursome has found its future home.

Quarterback Max Lyall, top receiver Keaton Hahn, two-way linemen Chris Gargasz and Gavin Spiker signed with Division II Walsh on Friday before a horde of family, friends and former coaches and teammates at the high school. They join Maysville kicker Mathew Harper, who signed last week, among the 50 recruits that Cavaliers coach John Fankhauser signed in this cycle.

A long, mostly frustrating process finally ended for some of the best players the Scotties have produced. They fell victim to a nationwide problem caused by a combination of the NCAA transfer portal, new roster limitations and college coaches more willing to take proven college players.

Transfer portal, roster limits ‘stinks for high school kids’

Tri-Valley coach Cameron West, who played at Mount Union in the late 2000s, said he has “learned a lot” about the new recruiting measures that colleges are taking toward high schoolers.

Specifically, he spoke of the negative impact that the transfer portal and newly introduced roster limitations have had on players seeking scholarships.

NCAA football teams can only hold 105 roster spots in the 2025-26 academic year, down almost 25 from rosters in 2024. This was due to the $2.8 billion House vs. NCAA antitrust settlement that caused roster cuts across multiple sports. In football alone, it meant more than 1,000 roster spots lost in Division I.

Sports Illustrated, in an article posted in October 2024, called it “the death of the walk-on athlete.” It has left many former walk-ons at Division I and FCS programs to seek shelter — and scholarship offers — elsewhere.

That trickle-down effect has hit high schools hardest. It really hit Lyall and Co.

Lyall, the all-time leading passer in MVL history with more than 10,000 yards, made multiple unofficial visits to Purdue and Ohio University, to name a few, and left firmly believing he would eventually land an offer.

Instead, the 6-3, 205-pounder, who made first-team All-Ohio in Division III for a 10-0 team as a senior, had only one offer — from the Cavs.

“Recruiting is just pushed way back,” West said. “That seems to be a common theme for all these schools. They’re just waiting to see what they can get out of the portal first.”

Indeed, high school players’ competition when it comes to landing an offer now doesn’t only lie with those their own age. In some cases, it might be from a fourth-year college grad student looking to squeeze out another year without having to sit for a year.

That makes those extra roster spots that much more difficult to land, even for a high-impact player like Lyall.

“It stinks for high school kids,” West said. “There are going to be some good high school football players that aren’t going to get the opportunity to play college football because of all of the kids that are in the portal and shopping around the portal.”

Universal frustration for high school recruits

Like Lyall, they had eyes on Division I offers as sophomores — and were convinced by many schools they visited that would receive them. As this experienced showed, it’s a brave new world in college athletics. It’s one that isn’t necessarily embraced by many.

Add Gargasz to the list of the frustrated. He called the recruiting process “nerve wracking” and was glad to simply have it all behind him. He grew even more bitter with the experience when players against whom played — and dominated head-to-head — received offers while he and his teammates waited.

“Me and Max went from being end of freshmen year getting talked to going on visits to Toledo and OU, all of these MAC schools, Division I schools, to a month later they’re not talking to us anymore because they’re offering guys from the portal from the Georgias and the Alabamas — all of the bigger schools,” Gargasz said. “It kind of hurt us a little bit. … It definitely puts you in a position where you want to go prove them wrong.”

Lyall echoed his burly teammate.

“It’s very motivational,” Lyall said. “This is the only Division II school that I really had an offer from. … Recruiting right now is terrible. The window is pushed way back way far. It’s stupid. I thought I was going to have an opportunity to walk on at a place like OU, but the roster spots being cut down affected us for sure.”

Spiker was among those who took the D-I visits with Lyall and Gargasz. He, like his teammates, admitted it was a stressful experience that provided them false hope as underclassmen.

“It was kind of stressful not knowing where I was going to wind up from the time the season ended in November to now when I signed,” Spiker said. “But I feel like I ended up making the right choice. It ended up well.”

He also had a different view of the portal.

“Now that I am in college, the portal actually helps me,” Spiker said. “While I am in high school it screws me over. But now I’ve got my foot in the door, and it can only help me. It’s a lot of motivation to go there and do well and maybe transfer out to a MAC school or another D-I school. We can put Tri-Valley on the map for future players.”

That made what happened on Friday all the more surprising. West said he can’t recall four players from the same class, at least at Tri-Valley, signing with the same school to play a sport.

West said he encouraged his players during the season to focus on the team

“We talked to all of our kids about, ‘look, be the best football player you can be for Tri-Valley and good things will happen,'” West said. “If you are constantly worried about ‘this school and that school offered who,’ that’s not a fun game to play. So just be the best kid you can be, the best teammate you can be, be the best player you can be.”

Walsh University was a ‘no-brainer’ for Tri-Valley quartet

A Division II school located in North Canton, Walsh has long been a popular landing spot for local gridders. Zanesville standouts Braily Blair, Gary Ransom and Trey Whiteman, Maysville’s Jeremy Willison and Rosecrans mainstays Zack Hill and Luke Lloyd were just a handful to make impacts in North Canton in the last 15 years.

Lyall and his cohorts will be the latest to take their shot at the Great Midwest Conference.

Lyall and Hahn, his top target, will room together as freshmen. Same can be said for Gargasz and Spiker, two of the best two-way linemen in the MVL the past two seasons.

Lyall was 137-of-209 passing for 2,416 yards with 34 touchdowns and only three interceptions in the regular season as a senior, then had another 725 yards in the playoffs. The 6-4, 185-pound Hahn, a big-play artist, had 44 catches for 959 yards and 18 TDs and finished with more than 21 TDs counting the postseason.

The 6-5, 265-pound Spiker, whose sister Audrey starred in basketball for coach Kurt Kaufman, helped clear the way with Gargazs and classmate Ashton Winner.

The 6-2, 245-pound Gargasz, who also stars as a thrower in track, had 47 tackles with a team-high eight sacks and 5 1/2 tackles-for-loss as a senior and put up similar numbers as a junior. This, despite rarely playing much in the second half of one-sided games.

Gargasz, who has sights on business management, aviation and EMT, said the group convened following their visits, after speaking with the coaches and visiting campus, and concluded that Walsh was a good landing spot.

He called it “a no-brainer between all of us.”

“After our junior years I knew we all had the potential,” Gargasz said. “I just didn’t expect us all to be going to Walsh, especially the people I am going with. But I am grateful. … The competition is something I am looking forward to.”

Lyall said it’s time for the players to focus on the future.

“We all thought we were going to get more but we didn’t,” Lyall said. “I am glad we all ended up together at a great school like Walsh. They don’t have anyone on full scholarship there, but to get all four of us — Coach Fank said he wanted to recruit local guys, guys from Ohio. And he did that.”

Hahn said there is a positive.

“I figure it will make things a lot easier, us all being together as freshmen,” Hahn said. “It will be fun. It’s a great opportunity.”

Spiker called it “super exciting.”

“You lose your senior season and everyone is sad because you never think you are going to play with these guys again,” Spiker said. “To get that chance to do it over again, it means everything. It’s a chance at redemption. You’d love to have everyone there from our senior class, but it’s just no realistic.”

West said that while the skill sets are different, the common denominator with the players Walsh is receiving is their leadership qualities.

“And in their unique way,” West said. “Gavin is quiet and led by example, Max is the voice at his position and Chris is just relentless. And Keaton i think led by his consistency. He was guy we counted on week in and week out to catch every pass and do whatever we needed.”

sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR