Philly-area football recruits are enrolling early in college. Some concerns exist about the trend.

A viral video earlier this month showed exactly why former Pope John Paul II High lineman Kevin Heywood is unlike most athletes his age.

During a practice session for the All-American Bowl in San Antonio, the 6-foot-7, 305-pound right tackle — who enrolled at Wisconsin earlier this month — tossed a fellow All-American like a rag doll in what appeared to be a drill.

The sequence also likely proved how well-prepared the 17-year-old appears to be for the physical rigors of college football.

Perhaps then it should come as no surprise that Heywood has followed a path high school athletes seem to be traveling more often in recent years: graduating high school early to enroll in college ahead of schedule.

“Any advantage you can have over your peers, that’s what everybody is trying to do right now,” one of Heywood’s former coaches, Mike Watkins, said in a phone interview.

“Everything these days is about being a step ahead,” Watkins added. “It is interesting because it is happening more and more now.”

» READ MORE: Imhotep’s Zahir Mathis and St. Joe’s Prep’s Samaj Jones are highly touted recruits. Their grandmother helped shape their path.

With several local football players enrolling early into colleges across the country, The Inquirer asked parents and coaches about the trend.

Chief among their concerns were balancing the benefits of early access to college amenities mixed with the academic complications associated with early graduation, and the risks of young athletes being consumed by the business of college sports.

“I just think it’s about the ‘microwave society,’” said Neumann Goretti coach Albie Crosby. “It just speeds the process. My biggest issue is, let these kids be kids. Why are we rushing them?”

When the conversation turns to early enrollment, Crosby, one of the most respected and successful coaches in the area, frequently cites the same example.

“DJ Moore,” Crosby said in a phone interview. “He went to school until June, played in all the all-star games, went to the prom, went to graduation, and then started at Maryland. Now, he’s an [Pro Football Focus] All-Pro in the NFL.”

Moore, a 2014graduate of Imhotep, played for Crosby, who later helped the Panthers in 2015 become the first Public League team to win a PIAA football title.

Typical of the early enrollment trend back then, Crosby said Moore enrolled in Maryland during the first available summer session just a few weeks after he graduated from high school.

Moore later finished his freshman season tied for the team lead in touchdown catches (3) and ranked second in receptions (25). Now, he is one of the highest-paid receivers in the NFL.

“When I was in school we didn’t pick up a football until August,” said Crosby, who has coached for more than two decades. “Then it became June. Now, everybody wants to start in January. So when does it stop?”

“This is just my perspective,” added Crosby, who acknowledged that each situation is different. “Mine might not be the right way. I’ve just seen a lot of kids go through it and say, ‘Coach, I wish I would’ve stayed…’”

The implication, Crosby said, is that enrolling early might improve freshmen’s chances of playing right away. Most, he says, will not, which makes him question if college coaches are also motivated to inflate rosters impacted by the transfer portal.

“It’s also so that they can have bodies for spring practice,” he said. “Spring ball is really for the back ups, especially now because some teams don’t have enough guys to have a spring practice where you can have backups go against the backups.”

Martin Luther King High coach Malik Jones sees the pros and cons of early enrollment and said the trend might be a symptom of the changing nature of amateurism.

“It shows how strategic some people are becoming,” he said. “You have families who are utilizing sports to change their narratives, change their situations.”

Jones said he has had conversations with parents in rural parts of Pennsylvania who have even considered strategically conceiving children during months that could yield an advantage if they chose to have the child repeat a grade later.

“It’s big business,” he said. “There’s a lot of money at stake. If nothing else, there’s college scholarships on the line. Think about what people have gone through to get those college scholarships. Actors and actresses have gotten in trouble in scandals because they paid money to get their kids into some of these prestigious universities.”

In 2019, Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman, and others faced charges in a nationwide college admissions scandal.

Penn Charter coach Tommy Coyle said it is incumbent upon parents considering early enrollment to know if their children are truly ready. Tyler Needham graduated early after the pandemic to attend Rutgers, which Coyle noted was close to where Needham grew up. Ohifame Ijeboi, however, recently graduated from Penn Charter and enrolled at Minnesota last week.

Coyle said Needham has done well at Rutgers and that Ijeboi has always shown maturity and also was an excellent student.

Watkins, the coach at the Pennington School in Jersey, has concerns about early enrollment, but also believes Heywood will benefit from being at Wisconsin now as opposed to in June.

“If you get six months of that type of training,” he said, “you are physically now caught up and even ahead of the freshmen in the country who didn’t. And if you’re able to take 12 credits, now you’re scheduled to graduate early.”

» READ MORE: Penn Charter RB Ohifame Ijeboi has ‘unlimited potential.’ Next stop: Minnesota.

The drawback, he added, is that athletes miss out on finishing their senior year with classmates and teammates.

Watkins, the former coach at now-closed Bishop McDevitt, where he first coached Heywood, also wonders if there will be consequences for high schools unwilling to accommodate students looking to graduate early.

“I think high schools will look at their curriculums,” he said. “Let’s say a prospective student-athlete is thinking about graduating early. Do they now second-guess their choice of high school because it doesn’t offer that opportunity?”

Jennifer Jones didn’t have such issues at Malvern Prep, where her youngest son, Peter, a 6-foor-6, 296-pound right tackle, graduated early before enrolling at Notre Dame earlier this month.

“I cannot say enough how pleased and grateful we were that Malvern Prep really stepped up to the challenge,” she said via phone.

Jones said her son’s teachers worked hard to finalize his grades, send transcripts, and meet all of Notre Dame’s deadlines.

She also appreciated that the school didn’t budge on its academic standards. Peter even had to complete Malvern’s service and theology requirements just like every other student.

“I was worried in August because he was going to do all of this during football season, but he did it,” she said. “He didn’t have a free moment, but he did it.”

» READ MORE: Malvern Prep’s Peter Jones shows elite athleticism and is ‘driven to succeed’ at Notre Dame

Peter Jones led the Friars to a second Inter-Ac football title in the last three seasons.

Still, Jennifer and her husband, Kevin, had reservations about sending their 17-year-old son to South Bend, Ind., ahead of schedule.

“We were hard to convince,” she said. “We thought, ‘you only get a high school experience one time in your life.’”

Peter, however, got an assist from his older brother, Kevin, who finished his football career at Maine last season. The 6-foot-6, 310-pound right tackle told his parents how much the early start could benefit his “little” brother. Kevin enrolled at Maine in June after graduating from Bishop Shanahan in 2017.

“We couldn’t justify [saying no] after [Kevin] laid it all out there,” she said.

Peter, she said, had also always been mature, driven, and self-motivated. Plus, his ability to finish the required work at Malvern reassured them that he was ready for college.

They also hoped he would benefit from a full semester of coursework without also having to acclimate to the pressures of a college football season.

Living off campus, however, was a bridge too far.

“That’s a big sticking point for my husband and I,” she said. “And we’re saying, ‘Nope. You will stay in the dorms.’ That will be a family decision. He doesn’t want to hear that, but that’ll be a family decision.”

Erik Dougherty and his wife, Amie, for years, have planned Heywood’s potential future in football.

When his stepson began fielding offers as an underclassman, Dougherty, a longtime high school basketball coach at his alma mater, Perkiomen Valley, talked to his local contacts in sports.

Quickly, he learned about the trend toward early enrollment.

“When he started getting offers,” Dougherty said via phone, “we started making sure that his curriculum would give him the opportunity, if he decided to, if he was ready for it, and if the school wanted him to, so that he could graduate early.”

» READ MORE: Wisconsin recruit Kevin Heywood’s evolution into a highly coveted prospect happened by design

Perhaps the business of college sports came into sharper focus after business intervened in Heywood’s high school career.

First, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia closed McDevitt, citing financial issues over declining enrollment. So, Heywood and several of his teammates enrolled at Archbishop Wood.

A few seasons later, Wood coach Matt Walp accepted an assistant coaching job at Rutgers.

For his senior season, Heywood transferred to Pope John Paul II, which is just a few miles from the family’s home in Royersford. By then, Heywood was a nationally known recruit sought after by nearly every major college program.

Eventually, however, Dougherty said, the archdiocese denied Heywood’s request to graduate early despite his being eligible to do so based on his completed coursework.

After hours of research, Dougherty said, he found a way for Heywood to play his senior season at PJP, which he led to its first Pioneer Athletic Conference football title, and earn a diploma from an online school.

The rub was that Heywood had to do an entire year’s worth of schoolwork in just a few months to earn a diploma.

Strategically, Dougherty said, Heywood took economics, finance, and financial literacy, which they hoped would help Heywood manage money he can receive through name, image, and likeness deals.

Like the Jones family, Dougherty added that Heywood’s determination in completing the coursework gave them more confidence that he was ready for college.

“Sometimes when you talk to him he sounds 17,” Dougherty said, “but when you see what he’s accomplished these past six months to graduate high school and get himself ready for early enrollment, it’s pretty unique and we’re pretty proud of him.”