Snyder to continue football at Frostburg State

Miners three-sport standout to be a Bobcat
Says Frostburg State offers ‘best of both worlds’

* Snyder named CTN’s Offensive Player of the Year
* AP coverage: Sentinels drop Miners in 1A title game
* Mountain Ridge Football on Facebook
* AlleganyPlayground.com on Facebook

By Kevin Spradlin
AlleganyPlayground.com

FROSTBURG — For Bryce Snyder, the fans in the stands this fall will look similar to the fans who have cheered him on for the past four years. There will be an awful lot of black and red rooting for him and his team.

Former Mountain Ridge Miners QB Bryce Snyder is staying local to begin his college career.

Snyder, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Mountain Ridge senior who led the Miners to the Maryland Class 1A state championship game last fall, agreed on Friday to attend Division II Frostburg State University. The announcement was made early Friday afternoon on the Frostburg State University football team’s Twitter page.

The 18-year-old, who sports a 4.37 grade point average and currently ranks in the top 10 percent of 165 graduating seniors, plans to major in mechanical engineering at Frostburg State. The program is in collaboration with University of Maryland at College Park.

“I really like math,” Snyder said. “It’s probably my favorite subject. Most people think of me as just like the senior quarterback that doesn’t have good grades and stuff, but I put just as much time in the classroom as I do on the field.”

Campus is only a few miles from where Snyder set the single-season passing record for Allegany County quarterbacks in 2021, throwing for 2,367 yards on 157-of-260 passing (60.4 percent) and 29 touchdowns to only six interceptions. Snyder also rushed for 521 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Snyder garnered the Cumberland Times-News Offensive Player of the Year honor after leading the area “in completions, passing yards, passing touchdowns, total touchdowns” and placing fifth in rushing touchdowns.

Snyder led the Miners to a school-record 11 wins, the program’s first region title and and first state championship game appearance.

“I know this year, obviously … we made it to the state championship and we didn’t get to finish it,” Snyder said.

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It’s official. Bryce Snyder is surrounded by family, coaches and supporters as he commits to Frostburg State University. Seated, left to right: Todd Snyder, Bryce’s father; Bryce Snyder; Julie Snyder, Bryce’s mother. Standing, left to right: Dave Hobel, athletic director and head basketball coach; Sydney Snyder, Bryce’s sister; Tonya Detrick-Grove, assistant principal; Miners football head coach Ryan Patterson; Principal Danny Carter; James “Bo” Evans, assistant principal; and Miners Offensive Coordinator Sefa Pua’auli.

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The loss behind him — he and his Miners basketball teammates are currently in pursuit of the top seed in Class 1A West Region — Snyder said he’d rather focus on the positives. He said the so many adults, including some of his team’s coaches who played for Beall in its playoff runs, “never (saw) support from the community like we got this year.”

Snyder will be changing addresses but keeping the 21532 ZIP code.

“I’m hoping we can do the same thing at Frostburg State,” he said, “and make a run for a national championship here in the next couple of years.”

Snyder joins a program on the rise. As Frostburg State continues its transition to Division II, the Bobcats’ program prestige increased considerably under former coach DeLane Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald recently accepted the head coaching job at Southern Utah University. Under Fitzgerald’s watch, Frostburg State has posted a winning record in seven straight seasons, won conference championships in 2016 and 2018, and made NCAA Division III playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018. The Bobcats also won a Division III bowl game in 2016.

After the 2018 season, Fitzgerald led Frostburg State’s transition to NCAA Division II membership and quickly found success in the form of a Mountain East Conference championship in 2021 with a record of 10-1.

Snyder said Frostburg State head coach Eric Wagoner, who was recently named to replace the outgoing Fitzgerald, plans to keep much of Fitzgerald’s “core principles” in place. Wagoner served as the Bobcats defensive coordinator for the past two years, during which Frostburg State allowed 16.36 points per game and captured a share of the Mountain East Conference title while Snyder and the Miners worked their way to the state championship game.

Snyder said he chose Frostburg State because the Bobcats were “the first school to stick their neck out there for me. They stayed in contact with me.”

Snyder said he also considered the University of Maryland and Towson University, but “nobody else seemed interested like Frostburg did. They were the first ones to throw me a bone.”

Snyder said the school’s move to Division II, along with the program’s recent success, helped seal the deal. In addition, he plans to play both football and baseball. Being able to be a two-sport athlete and major in mechanical engineering offers “the best of both worlds,” Snyder said.

“I might be able to be a two-way” player, and pitch and play catcher, Snyder said, but not necessarily in his first year transitioning to college life.

Snyder figured there could be an uptick in local fans “chompin’ at the bit” to buy tickets for Bobcat football games this fall. His grandparents, who already have a good view of the field from their deck, figure to be among those in the stands, Snyder said.

 

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