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‘He’s someone you want your own son to be like’: Saquon Barkley’s hometown, high school embracing the once-in-a-generation talent

Related Topics: Saquon Barkley

WHITEHALL

Several Whitehall students — wearing Penn State football T-shirts — scuttle through the high school’s faded glass doors and past a security guard with a sign-in sheet and a pack of Extra gum on his plastic pop-up table.

“Nope, not today,” the bearded guard tells students asking for a stick of gum. “I’m all out.”

As disappointed faces walked by earlier this week, Saquon Barkley — Whitehall’s favorite son — was waiting around corner. Just like always.

Beneath a maroon “Zephyr Pride” banner, behind the security desk, a full-page newspaper illustration of Barkley is one of the first things people see when they walk into Whitehall High School — and it’s certainly not the only reminder of the local legend.