Indian Hill’s head football coach John Rodenberg remembers the moment he realized two-sport star Devlan Daniel is a true worker.
On May 8, 2024, Indian Hill baseball had a game against Wyoming to clinch the Cincinnati Hills League title. Rodenberg walked into the weight room around 6 a.m. that morning and found Daniel putting himself through a full football workout.
“That never happens,” Rodenberg said. “I didn’t say anything to him. I don’t require that when they’re in their other sports.”
At that time, Daniel was a freshman. That night, he went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, five RBIs and three runs on the way to an 18-0 title-clinching win for the Braves.
Rodenberg has won four football state titles in three different states during his head coaching career (at Covington Catholic in 2006, Moeller in 2012 and 2013, Indianapolis Roncalli in 2020). He’s seen a lot of good football. He said Daniel is squarely among the best he’s ever coached.
An outfielder and right-handed pitcher in his spare time, Daniel is ranked the No. 1 player in Ohio and the No. 54 player nationally for the class of 2027, according to Prep Baseball Report. This past baseball season, Daniel won the CHL triple crown, leading the league in batting average (.557), home runs (6) and RBIs (43). He pitched to a 3.54 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 31.2 innings.
As impressive as those numbers are, his football stats from the past season may be even more gaudy. The sophomore rushed for 2,260 yards and 34 touchdowns. He also chipped in 42 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions and a punt return touchdown.
Moeller’s Matt Ponatoski became the third player ever to win Gatorade Player of the Year awards in two sports in the same year in 2025, joining Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Mauer and Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy Moss. If Daniel posts those types of numbers as a junior or a senior, you’d have to think he’d have a shot to be the fourth. If he had won both of those awards this year, the only thing that might’ve made people blink would be that he was only a sophomore.
A new challenge
While Daniel has the chance to put up player of the year-type numbers in his next two seasons, he likely won’t rush for 2,000 yards again (although it can’t be ruled out). Rodenberg told Daniel in January that he would play quarterback this season for the Braves.
Daniel has a howitzer for a right arm. He was clocked throwing 100 mph with a crow hop from the outfield in February. Off the mound, he was clocked at 91 mph per hour just under a year ago.
Rodenberg said some players on the team were apprehensive about the move at first. They thought that Indian Hill was going to turn into a run-only offense with Daniel behind the center. Rodenberg said that won’t be the case.
“If we have to throw 50 times with him back there to win, we’ll throw 50 times and win,” Rodenberg said. “He’s going to give people problems when he runs, but he can throw the ball too. I’ve already seen improvements, and he’s just going to keep getting better.”
Said Daniel: “We’ve been working on it. Obviously, I’ve got the baseball arm. I’m starting to get more comfortable with the reads, and it’s all been coming to me quicker.”
This isn’t Rodenberg’s first rodeo. In 2002, when he was at McNicholas, the Rockets were short on quarterbacks. He handed the keys to the offense to Zach Denton, an outfielder on the baseball team who had a strong arm. The decision worked out pretty well, and McNicholas had two winning seasons with Denton.
Rodenberg also remembers early 2000s Princeton football teams that featured Mike Daniels as their quarterback. He later went on to play at UC, coach at numerous colleges and now works for the NFL. Daniels started his high school career as a running back at Lockland before transferring to Woodward and later Princeton, where he played quarterback.
“They would go into empty a lot,” Rodenberg said. “… They wanted the ball in (Daniels’) hands. They’d give him a couple nice easy reads, and if he didn’t have anything, they had him take off. They won a lot of games, and it’s really a similar philosophy that we want to go with.”
In the past couple of years, Daniel would joke about playing quarterback. Now it’s a reality. He does have some experience from throwing to his brothers as they ran routes against each other as kids. One of Daniel’s brother, Conlan Daniel, just transferred from Wright State to play baseball at UC. Daniel was on Moeller’s 2023 state championship team along with new UC teammates Charlie Niehaus and Carson Marsh.
Up next
Daniel has had a busy summer. Most days, he goes to football practice early in the morning and then a baseball game or practice in the afternoon. He won’t get much of a break over the next few months. The summer ball travel circuit begins next weekend. Daniel will be in Alabama, Atlanta (twice), Florida and California for different baseball tournaments over the next five weeks. Once that’s over, it’ll be right into his junior football season.
The Braves went 9-4 last season, winning two playoff games before falling 30-14 to Taft in the third round. They hope to be even better in 2025.
“The work ethic our team had last year was tremendous,” Daniel said. “And that’s carried on to this year. We have a bunch of experience this year, guys that have been on varsity for three or four years. I think that all the pieces to the puzzle are gonna come together and fit really well.”
Rodenberg raved about the leadership abilities Daniel showed off as an underclassmen. He leads by example on the field and in the weight room. He’s harder on himself than anyone else. He supports teammates, but he’s not afraid to get on one when it’s needed.
While Daniel hasn’t made any decisions about college, he did admit that it would be “super fun” to play both sports at the next level. Just about every coach he’s talked to has seemed open to and even enthusiastic about the idea. His favorite sport, he said, is whichever is in season.
The rising junior already has six Division I offers: Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Liberty, Miami (Fla.), Miami (Ohio) and Toledo.
Daniel has a lot of baseball and a lot of football to play before he has to start worrying about big decisions like that. Cincinnatians have heard a lot about Ponatoski in the last few months. It seems likely that Daniel will be a similarly well-known name around the city very soon, if he’s not already.
The Braves first take the gridiron in 2025 at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22 at home against Roger Bacon.
Indian Hill High School’s 2025 football schedule
All games on Fridays at 7 p.m.
Aug. 22 – vs. Roger Bacon
Aug. 29 – vs. Northwest
Sept. 5 – at New Richmond
Sept. 12 – at Wyoming
Sept. 19 – vs. Mariemont
Sept. 26 – at Taylor
Oct. 3 – vs. Finneytown
Oct. 10 – at Madeira
Oct. 17 – at Deer Park
Oct. 24 – vs. Reading
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Devlan Daniel, Indian Hill baseball star and 2,000-yard rusher, on switch to QB and more
Reporting by Jack Schmelzinger, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
