By:
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 | 10:30 PM
Peters’ Mickey Vaccarello beats Pine-Richland’s Tanner Cunningham for a second-quarter touchdown during 5A WPIAL Championship game Saturday Nov. 18, 2023 at Norwin High School.
Just days after taking a recruiting trip to the West Coast, Peters Township’s Mickey Vaccarello decided to spend his college years in California.
The junior linebacker commitment to Stanford on Wednesday, choosing the Cardinal over a list of college offers heavy in high-academic schools. Vaccarello had nearly 20 offers in all, including Ivy League members Princeton, Harvard and Yale, along with FBS schools Boston College, Syracuse and Utah, among others.
Rivals.com ranked the 6-foot-3, 210-pound outside linebacker as a three-star recruit. He’s the fifth member of Stanford’s 2025 recruiting class and the second from Pennsylvania as the Cardinal prepare to join the ACC next fall.
Vaccarello is a disruptive tackler on a Peters Township defense that won the WPIAL Class 5A title and reached the state finals. He had 111 tackles including 29 tackles for a loss and 13 sacks, earning Trib Terrific 25 honors. He was also voted first-team all-state after leading the Indians to a 15-1 record.
He also plays tight end for Peters Township.
His other college offers were from Navy, Old Dominion, Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio), Eastern Carolina, Cornell, Marshall, UConn, Buffalo, Toledo, Akron, Delaware and Penn.
Proud to announce my commitment to Stanford!!????⚪️????????#GoCards #FearTheTree@StanfordFball @TroyTaylorStanU @CoachAprilOLB @Coach_Plack @PetersTwpFB pic.twitter.com/fvVwGUJVxA
— Mickey Vaccarello (@MickeyVac) April 17, 2024
Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at [email protected].
Tags: Peters Township
