Aug 19, 2019 5 min read

Josh Casilli almost never had the chance for a breakout junior season.

The Peters Township High School wide receiver nearly missed out on his freshman and sophomore seasons, too.

Casilli was about to call it quits as a football player.

“I had been playing since I was 6-years-old but had started to lose interest through the years,” Casilli remembers thinking after eighth grade. “I wanted to focus on other sports.”

He wanted to turn his attention to basketball and track, abandoning football after growing up and seeing the struggles of the varsity program, which was without a coach.

That all changed on a drive home after a graduation party, when Casilli sat in the car with Scott Hondru, a trusted neighbor whose son Corban had been teammates with Casilli through childhood.

“(Scott) found out I wasn’t playing and he wasn’t having it,” Casilli said. “He was bringing up his past and what it was like to be part of a team.”

So, Casilli decided to give football another shot.

Now, the 6-0, 180-pound explosive two-way player – he plays safety on defense – will be playing this game on a different day next year.

Casilli committed to play at the University of Pennsylvania, hoping to follow in the footsteps of former South Fayette wide receiver Justin Watson, who is about to begin his second year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after an illustrious career at Penn.

Casilli had multiple offers, including from Holy Cross, Air Force, Duquesne, Cornell, Rhode Island, Lafayette, Maine, Columbia, Albany, William & Mary, UMass and Youngstown State.

But the opportunity to play college football looked dormant during the summer before his freshman year.

“We always talk about it. I had always heard about it. He wasn’t with us all summer,” said Peters Township football coach T.J. Plack, who was hired before Casilli’s freshman year. “He was running track and doing summer-league basketball.

“He showed up the week before camp started. In Week 2 or 3, he found himself on the field. He just had a knack for making plays. We were losing to Seneca Valley, I put him in the second half and he had receptions of 70 and 52 yards after getting behind their defense. He then did it again the following week. When his opportunity came, he ran with it.”

Casilli hasn’t looked back.

After 25 receptions as a freshman and 29 as a sophomore, he was the go-to target in the Indians’ balanced, yet explosive, offense last season. Casilli finished his junior season with 51 receptions, 892 yards and 11 touchdowns.

For his career, he has 105 catches for 1,927 yards.

“I remember one of my first practices being a 7-on-7 against Upper St. Clair,” Casilli said. “They let me run with the varsity a little bit. I did well. I knew I couldn’t leave.

“It’s crazy to think about where I’m at. I’ve been gone every weekend going to visit a new school. Coaches would come in and I would get called out of class.”

But even with tremendous athleticism, Casilli is concerned about more than showing up on gameday. He has devoted himself to getting into the weight room and learning the tendencies of both quarterbacks he has played with at Peters Township – Jake Cortes, a redshirt freshman tight end at Pitt, and junior Logan Pfeuffer, who is entering his second year under center for PT.

“Josh has always had the athletic ability,” Plack said. “It was about getting into the weight room to add mass and strength. Now, he truly is a physical player. He is hard to tackle, breaks tackles and has great acceleration.

“In Logan’s case, if I was a sophomore with limited experience I would love a guy like Josh on the outside. It made his life a lot easier. We did a lot of one-man option routes.”

For Casilli and Plack, it’s about continuing to turn around a program that nearly missed out on a two-way standout had it not been for Hondru.

Casilli leads a loaded group of skill-position players, including running back Ryan Magiske and wide receiver Aidan McCall, that will have more pressure because both sides of the line of scrimmage are inexperienced.

Last year, the Indians were stopped one game shy – a 22-14 loss to Penn Hills in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals – of reaching their first district championship game. Penn Hills eventually went on to be the WPIAL and PIAA champion.

Peters Township will try to repeat as Allegheny Eight Conference champion, a crown it shared last season with West Allegheny.

“There is always going to be pressure,” Casilli said. “I think we will be all right. We know what we want to do, but we don’t want to feel like we have to do too much. (Winning a championship) would mean the world. If we need a big play, they can always count on me.”