From Rob Carmody's perspective, the marriage of Steve Cress and Edinboro University is the ultimate win-win.

Cress, who is graduating next month as Mars Area High School's all-time leading scorer, committed to the NCAA Division II school by signing a national letter of intent Tuesday.

"Edinboro could end up getting a real steal out of this," said Carmody, the Planets' varsity coach. "I really believe with another year of development, he has Division I athleticism and skill level."

But as good as Carmody believes Cress, a 6-foot-6 forward, can be for the Fighting Scots, he also sounds rather convinced that Edinboro can be just as rewarding for Cress.

"I think it's a great place for him on a number of levels," Carmody said. "Athletically, it's a very good fit; academically, it has all the things he's looking for."

Cress rewrote the Planets' record book in his time there. He had 1,208 points, breaking Tim Frye's two-year-old record after Frye surpassed Cress' father, Bill. Bill Cress, who is also is a former Mars coach, scored 1,098 points during his high school career.

Steve Cress averaged 21.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and two blocks per game as a senior and became the first Planets player to tally 1,200 points, 700 rebounds and 100 blocks in a career.

Edinboro coach Greg Walcavich and his staff heavily recruited Cress since before his senior season.

"When I went up to visit, I really liked the coaching staff and the players on the team," said Cress, who plans to major in either finance or accounting. "It felt like the right situation for me."

"We are thrilled to have Steve join our program," Walcavich said. "He will be an important part of all we accomplish in the next four years.

"Steve is everything we look for in recruiting -- an outstanding player, person and student."

Carmody said Cress is capable of playing and contributing to the team as a freshman, particularly given the opportunity to join a team with established offensive options. That mirrors Cress' high school career, where he was more of a role player as a freshman and, to a lesser degree, as a sophomore while surrounded by scoring threats Frye, Charlie Jaicks and Robbie Herold.

Although NCAA Division II shot-blocking record-holder Ryan McLemore is graduating, the Fighting Scots return some proven scorers. Cress likely will play one of the forward positions at Edinboro.

"He's very committed and has everything you need to succeed," Carmody said. "He can be a difficult matchup for people at that level."

Carmody said Cress figures to fill out physically and become stronger with added maturity and the adherence to a collegiate strength-training program.

"I know there's a lot of areas I can still improve on, and I'm working on them right now," Cress said. "I think I can improve a lot on my shot and ballhandling and probably defense. I have a lot of room to grow, and I know I'll be able to do that while at Edinboro."

Cress already is working on many of those things and pledged to do so throughout the summer until he reports to campus in late August.

Until then, however, Cress still has a few more weeks left as a high school student, so he still has a few more weeks left as a Fighting Planet before he becomes a Fighting Scot (and therefore having one of the most unusual nickname combinations of all-time).

"I enjoyed all four years I played. I liked everybody I played with [at Mars]," Cress said. "I don't know if there's another school I'd rather have gone to or another coaching staff I'd rather play under.

Coach Carmody did everything he could for me and was always there to help me, and so were the assistants, Paul Rubish and Mike Baumgartel, coach [Jason] Ward and then there's coach [Dave] Lyons, who helped a lot.

"Looking back on it, there's room for improvement for me, but I am happy with the assistance from a lot of people I've been around, the coaches and players."