Blue White Illustrated

L ocated in the nation's most densely populated metro area – just across the Hudson River from Manhattan – Union City (N.J.) High plays its home football games at Roosevelt Field, a 4,500-seat multisport facility that sits atop the roof of the school. There's nothing else like it in the United States. "It's amazing up there," said Daiquan Kelly, a soon-to-be Union City graduate who is set to continue his football career at Penn State. "I wish I could play one more game up there." Kelly raves about the view of the skyline, which served as the backdrop to his career. "You can see everything, the whole city," Kelly said, pointing speci9cally to MetLife Stadium, four miles southeast in East Rutherford. For Kelly, that's a coincidental land- mark. Penn State opened its 2013 season in MetLife. Kelly wasn't in attendance, but his future team faced Syracuse, which happens to be the school to which Kelly was once committed before earning a PSU scholarship o;er. Kelly was always interested in Penn State. He was on campus in March when Union City teammate Steven Gonzalez verbally committed, and he came back with Gonzalez later that spring for the Blue-White Game. Kelly would have com- mitted alongside Gonzalez, but Penn State was still under NCAA scholarship restric- tions at the time, and the coaching sta; wanted to further evaluate Kelly at camp before extending an o;er. So he returned to campus in June. A 6- foot-2 defensive back for the Soaring Ea- gles – Union City head coach Wil Valdez describes him as "a versatile safety" – Kelly needed to show his potential at both DB and linebacker before the Nittany Lions would be willing to o;er a scholar- ship. So he spent a day in June working closely with Brent Pry and Bob Shoop. He ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash and said immediately a

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