Pitt commits William Jeffress, Noah Collier earn first-team all-state honors

Pitt commits William Jeffress and Noah Collier concluded their high school careers on a high note, as both earned first-team all-state honors in Pennsylvania this week. Jeffress was honored for his performance at McDowell High School in Erie at the Class 6A level, and Collier was recognized for his work at Westtown School in West Chester at the 3A level.

“It’s amazing news, and I owe it all to my family, my coaches and my teammates,” Jeffress told Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times-News. “They helped me become the player I am today. Without them, I wouldn’t be anywhere, and it feels great to be recognized as one of the best players in the state. It’s a really cool honor.”

With the revelation of the Pennsylvania Sports Writers Class 6A all-state teams on Saturday, Jeffress earned his third all-state honor. The McDowell forward previously secured a spot on the all-state second team as a freshman and as a sophomore. He then reclassified from the 2021 class to the 2020 class, forgoing his junior year and officially becoming a senior.

Jeffress finished his career at McDowell as the school’s all-time leading scorer, as he amassed 1,673 points in a span of three seasons. The 6’7”, 195-pound forward averaged 21.2 points per game as a freshman, 24.0 as a sophomore and, most recently, 24.4 as a senior.

Joining Jeffress at Pitt next season will be Collier, and although his commitment to the program last October was a quieter affair than Jeffress coming aboard on Tuesday, Collier is no less accomplished, as he is also a three-time all-state player and a two-time state champion. And like Jeffress, Collier holds a four-star rating from ESPN.

The 6’7”, 200-pound forward recently closed out his high school career by scoring 15 points in Westtown’s 72-59 win over Malvern for the PAISSA state title in February. That included a buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter that put Westtown up 54-41. But his seven rebounds also proved vital to the outcome.

“Noah Collier fell on every single rebound when it mattered,” Westtown coach Seth Berger told Bruce Adams of PA Prep Live after the game. “I told the team before the game that [injured Westtown center Franck Kepnang] gets about 15 rebounds a game, and that everybody needs to make up for those rebounds. And they did.”

Collier finished his athletic career at Westtown as a 1,000-point scorer. He also got the opportunity to play alongside future NBA stars Mo Bamba and Cam Reddish, winning a state title with the two at Westtown as a freshman.

Collier and Jeffress will join John Hugley, a first-team all-state selection out of Ohio who also holds a four-star rating, at Pitt in 2020. The trio of all-state honorees are part of an incoming Pitt recruiting class ranked 19th in the country by Rivals and 20th by 247Sports.