ESPN RISE

Hancock High School has the smallest enrollment of any public school offering football in Maryland, but it may be home to one of the state's biggest secrets.

Nick Harvey, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound middle linebacker, is drawing interest from Harvard, Penn State and West Virginia.

"He's the best-kept secret in Maryland," Hancock coach Dave Mahaffey said.

A confluence of events led Harvey to being overlooked.

First, he has never attended a camp or combine -- something that will change later this month. Second, being among the physically larger students in Hancock's football program, Harvey routinely played on the offensive and defensive lines. Finally, let's face it, Hancock is not a recruiting must-stop for college coaches. In fact, the last Hancock player to receive any football scholarship money was Sam Hess in 1999.

Harvey's recruiting fortunes changed when Mahaffey, a former Shippensburg University defensive line coach, was named Hancock's coach last fall.

"I met with the players, and it took about 15 seconds before I knew [Harvey] would be my middle linebacker," Mahaffey said.

Harvey responded with a junior season that included 112 tackles (12 for loss), nine sacks, nine forced fumbles, nine pass breakups and three fumble recoveries.

"He is the most natural linebacker I've coached in my 19 years [in] high school football," Mahaffey said. "He has pure instincts on the field. He's deceptively fast -- in the 4.8 [40-yard time] range. ... He makes the reads and when he gets a shot at somebody, he finishes the play. Most teams did not have success running tackle-to-tackle on us because of Nick.

"[Until last year] he never played upright on a football field," Mahaffey said. "He was always bigger than everyone else so he always played on the line. ... He still plays a little high, but we'll work on that this year."

Harvey had a 19-tackle outing against Bucktail (Pa.). He also handled the kicking duties, played offensive guard and even took turns as long-snapper on punts.

"I can't afford to take him off the field," Mahaffey said.

Harvey also is a power forward on the basketball team, and he is dedicating the spring sports season to the weight room and improving an already impressive 1200 SAT score.

In the classroom, Harvey carries a 4.0 GPA and ranks No. 1 in his class, according to Mahaffey.

Harvey does not have any official offers, but recruiting interest is slowly picking up.

Mahaffey wanted outside evaluations of Harvey, so he sent a 45-second clip to Penn State, where he has coaching friends from his days at Shippensburg. "The next thing I know, I'm sending tape and getting calls from other schools."

Harvey's combine plans this summer include a stop at the Nike Combine at M&T Bank Stadium on March 28 followed by a pair of May events -- one at Good Counsel and the NATS event at M&T Bank Stadium.

Mahaffey is hoping the word is out on Harvey, and he may not be the state's best-kept secret much longer.

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Sheldon Shealer is a senior editor with ESPNRISE.com and can be reached at Sheldon.Shealer@espn.com