Highlands High School doesn’t get too many players who Penn State offers in recruiting.
Western Pennsylvania has plenty of prominent programs that have produced multiple Penn Staters.
Highlands isn’t one of them, having never won a district championship.
But when a guy like Tevin Owen-Crastenberg comes along, Penn State is going to pay attention. We aren’t even in October yet, and Owen-Crastenberg has already eclipsed 1,000 yards, making him the top rusher in the WPIAL.
Penn State offered Owen-Crastenberg ahead of its matchup with Buffalo Sept. 19.
The night before, he rushed for 303 yards on 35 carries.
The next week, Owen-Crastenberg was “held in check,” going for just 176 yards and four touchdowns in 22 carries.
So, yeah, he’s good, and so is Highlands.
Highlands is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play, with the four wins coming by an average of 27.5 points.
Ahead of Friday’s game, Alan Saunders of Nittany Sports Now caught up with Owen-Crastenberg, and asked him if he expected things to take off the way he have.
“Yes, sir,” he told NSN “I’ve worked all the way until this moment.”
Penn State was Owen-Crastenberg’s first Power Four recruiting offer, with MAC schools Bowling Green and Kent State also offering him.
“It meant a lot,” he said. “There was a point where I felt like a lot of this work, there was a heavy weight lifted off of my shoulders. So, yeah, it felt great.”
Owen-Crastenberg was there for Penn State’s 55-13 win over Buffalo Sept. 19, and yeah, he was impressed by the atmosphere.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“It was a crazy environment,” he said. “The energy was insane. The coaching staff was great.”
The coaching staff is a fan of Owen-Crastenberg, and with good reason.
So what did he work on over the offseason to get to this point?
“I worked a lot on my speed at the end of last year,” he said. “I worked a lot on my cuts, and just my mental, paying attention to detail.”
“I think I’m a lot more physical. I run through the tackles more. I lower my shoulder, put my head down, run a guy over if I have to.”
This physicality is reflected in the Highlands team, as well.
“Our goal is just to be more physical,” he said. “We have to play with a lot of tenacity, just dominate the rest of the season.”
“I felt like it would give a lot of our guys that don’t really shine a lot more exposure. We have a lot of great ball players, a lot of athletes. So I feel like it would give them a chance to show what they can do.”
Owen-Crastenberg’s brother, Allan Crastenberg, played Divison I football at VMI, and ended his career near the top 10 on the school’s all time tacklers list.
The Crastenberg family is looking forward to Tevin following in the lineage.
“They were really excited for me, obviously,” he said. “They helped me a lot throughout this. My brother, he sent my film out everywhere. They’re going to get a chance to experience the crazy environments up at games.”
