By DOUG DONNELLY

OTTAWA LAKE – Whiteford’s state-ranked football team is getting a boost this week with the addition of two-time All-Ohio running back Rocco Pillarelli.

After getting cleared by the Michigan High School Athletic Association this week, Pillarelli is expected to be in the Bobcat lineup when Whiteford hosts Edon at 7 p.m. The game is an important one for both schools, who are tied atop the Toledo Area Athletic Association (TAAC) with 3-0 league records.

Whiteford (4-1) is ranked No. 9 in Division 7 this week. Edon is 5-1.

Pillarelli played three seasons at Ottawa Hills, which is also a member of the TAAC and Whiteford’s Week 9 opponent. In 2023 he rushed for 1,347 yards and scored 19 touchdowns, earning honorable mention All-State in Ohio’s Division VI. Last season he was the TAAC player of the year after rushing for 1,372 yards, averaging nearly 11 yards per carry, and scoring 16 touchdowns. He was named first team All-State.

The 5-8, 165-pound senior transferred to Toledo St. Francis this year and had played for the Knights early in the season.

Two weeks ago, he enrolled at Whiteford.

The MHSAA said it has several exceptions that allow a student to be eligible immediately at a new school. Three of those require an “educational transfer form” to be signed by principals from both the old and new schools. One of the exceptions allows for an 18-year-old who moves independently of his or her parents from the old school district to the new one to be eligible at the new school if the student “resides only within that new school district.”

That is known as “exception No. 12,” said MHSAA Director of Communications Geoff Kimmerly.

Pillarelli is no stranger to the school district. His mother, LeighAnn, was an All-State softball player at Whiteford in 1993 and 1994 and is in Whiteford’s athletic hall of fame. His aunt played sports at Whiteford as did his cousins.

Whiteford coach Todd Thieken said Pillarelli has been eager to learn the Bobcat playbook and his new teammates have welcomed him to the team.

“He has come in totally humble and asks questions all the time so that he can learn things and fit in any way he can,” Thieken said. “The thing that jumps out the most to me is his football IQ and his work ethic. He definitely has talent, but those other intangibles are what has propelled him to success in the past.”