His teammates and coaches call him simply J.J. But Peters Township baseball player Jordan Jankowski will be forever associated with two other letters.

That stands for home runs, and Jankowski will go down as one of the most prolific home-run hitters in WPIAL history.

Jankowski, a senior catcher-pitcher, has 36 career home runs. No one has kept individual records for WPIAL baseball, like the ones that exist for football and basketball. But you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has hit more homers than Jankowski.

Before Jankowski, 1998 Baldwin graduate Tom Kail was believed to be the top home run hitter in recent decades. But he had only 28, eight fewer than Jankowski.

"I don't think people can appreciate at all what Jordan has done," said Peters Township coach Joe Maize. "It's been fun to watch."

Jankowski has nine home runs this season. He had 14 as a junior, eight as a sophomore and five as a freshman. In Jankowski's career, Peters Township has played 94 games, which means Jankowski has hit a home run every 2.6 games.

"I knew I had a decent amount, but I never counted them up," Jankowski said. "I never knew I had this many."

Jankowski also has 129 career RBIs.

"The thing that's been fun to watch is how disciplined he's become at the plate," Maize said. "That's probably the biggest improvement from his freshman year all the way to his senior year. He's realized how important a walk is."

Teams know of Jankowski's power, and many pitch around him. He has walked 25 times in 20 games this season and walked 21 times in 26 games last season.

But the home run stuff is nothing new for Jankowski.

"When I was younger, I played in both Carrick and Peters Township little leagues," Jankowski said. "The one summer, I had 60 home runs between the two leagues and tournaments."

But Jankowski looks a lot different this season than the past few. He took off 50 pounds, at the suggestion of some scouts and coaches. He is now 6 feet 1, 250 pounds.

"I went to a showcase last summer, and some of the scouts told me I was overweight," Jankowski said. "Ever since then I've been running, and I stopped eating fast food. I eat a lot of salads now."

Jankowski will play next season at Miami (Ohio), but some major league scouts have shown interest.

"I think I have a chance at getting drafted, but I don't know where," he said.

Quaker Valley's Christa Rogers set a WPIAL Class AA championship meet record in the 200-meter dash Tuesday. She joins her sister in the record books.

The Class AA record-holder in the 100 hurdles is Jasmine Rogers, who ran 14.18 in 2004. Jasmine is running track at Delaware State.

When the WPIAL announced its 2008 Hall of Fame class Tuesday, a few of the inductees attended the news conference at the Pittsburgh History Center. It was interesting to hear some of their stories.

Don Hennon, who played basketball at Wampum and was an All-American at Pitt in the late 1950s, was at the news conference. Jerry Matulevic, whose 1980 baseball team is part of the 2008 class, was playing at Pitt during the Hennon days.

"People used to just come watch him practice shooting," Matulevic said. "If you were around the gym and he was in there shooting, people would be saying, 'Hey, Hennon's shooting. Let's go watch.' "

Matulevic also talked about how Hennon mastered a hook shot.

"I'm not talking layups, either," Matulevic said. "He'd shoot it from 15 feet."

Hennon scored 2,376 points at Wampum High -- without the 3-point line.

"Every time we could fastbreak, we did," Hennon said. "But I think something that is overlooked on our 1955 team that went 31-0 is defense. Our emphasis was on defense. I'll bet you our margin of victory that year was close to 50 points. We beat some teams by 100 points."

The Donora 1945 football team also was selected for induction. Bimbo Cecconi was the quarterback of that team, which allowed only 13 points all season. The first-team defense didn't allow a point and five players from the team went to Pitt.

"Everyone puts the 1944 and '45 teams together," Cecconi said. "The '44 team was great but gave up some touchdowns. The '45 team was ranked No. 2 in the country. The only team that was ranked ahead of us [Highland Park, Texas] had Bobby Layne and Doak Walker."

Both Layne and Walker are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I just can't believe we're getting honored like this, just because our team was from so long ago," Cecconi said.

"A lot of people think of great teams just recently. I think the town of Donora will be resurrected some with this."

It is common for high school juniors -- and sometimes sophomores -- to make verbal commitments to colleges. But how is this for an early commitment? A standout eighth-grade player recently accepted a scholarship to the University of Kentucky. In fact, the 15-year-old decided on a college before he decided on a high school.

Michael Avery is a talented 6-4 player in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie saw him play recently at the King James Classic in Akron, Ohio, and liked him. The kid's father got in touch with Gillispie and the Kentucky coach verbally offered a scholarship, perfectly legal by NCAA rules. Avery accepted a few days later.

Avery has never been to Kentucky, but that's not unusual because WPIAL football and basketball players have committed to schools without ever visiting. But Avery told Kentucky he was coming before he decided on a high school. He was considering attending a prep school before recently deciding to attend Crespi (Calif.).

An eighth-grader committing to a college has happened before, though. UCLA and USC have offered basketball scholarships to eighth graders in the past. But what do you think the chances are Avery will end up at Kentucky?

Want an example of how fast kids can change their minds? Darrell Givens, a standout defensive back from Lackey High School in Indian Head, Md., made a verbal commitment to Ohio State in April. Then he changed his mind and said recently he has decided to attend Penn State.

Givens was highly recruited, with other scholarship offers from Pitt, Miami, Michigan, Tennessee and Florida, among others. He is Penn State's fifth recruit from the class of 2009.