I am hoping to go see Mickey play next week. Who is the best High School player you have seen that
went to College and made a name for himself?
I have 2, one on O and one on D.
Sanchez, he was a man amongst boys. Saw him play 3 times, he was unreal. Very, very calm in the pocket especially for a HS QB and he could throw the ball a mile and on target.
Galippo, CW blew it with this kid. He was the fastest, most athletic, hardest hitting HS player I have ever seen. When he hit the ball carrier...OUCH. They would put him in the slot on O too. He was unreal.
Replies to: I am hoping to go see Mickey play next week. Who is the best High School player you have seen that
Ricky Waters, Shady McCoy, Dan Marino.
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In football, Jerome Bettis. In basketball, Magic Johnson.
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Unfortunately my HS B Ball is Quintin Daily.
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Julio Jones, Marlon Humphery
I didn't see any football players during my high school years who ever made a name for themselves, since our teams stank pretty badly. There was one kid a few years after I had left, who did get a scholarship offer to play quarterback at Miami University (Ohio), back when they were everyone's doormat, and before Rose turned things around. He never really materialized as a player, though, and I suspect the scholarship was more in line with granting one of the university's bigwigs a family favor.
The only big star from my town was an amazing basketball player named Greg Simpson, who went on to play for tOSU until he got thrown in jail for the first of many, many times. Last I heard, he's a repeat loser felon.
Once I moved to Alabama, though, I've had the pleasure of seeing the two players in the title play in high school.
Nobody could cover Julio Jones in high school, since he was bigger, faster, and stronger than anyone else, not to mention, having some of the best hands and route running anywhere. I honestly believe he could have started for just about any college team even at the start of his junior year. I only got to see him on TV, where one of the local stations covered a couple of the Foley games, but dang, that guy was scary.
He was arguably scarier switching back and forth between rush and drop end on defense. Even though he was a lot slimmer than the blockers on offense, he could reach around anyone before they knew his hands were beyond them, and pull down a running back with ease. That plus with his freakish athleticism, he'd pretty much break your ankles if you were a blocker, trying to match his footwork.
Marlon Humphrey was much more local to me, though. He was guaranteed to shut down the top receiver on any high school, bar none, regardless of whether they were a blazingly fast receiver, a strong handed possession receiver, a precise route runner, etc. He could cover them all during his high school days, and the only thing that surprised me was that he wasn't starting as a true freshman.
Even before they started excelling in college, it wasn't surprising at all that both of them became superstars on Nick Saban's Crimson Tide teams.
Danny Ainge. Check his bio. HS AA bball, fball,
Drafted by the Bluejays outta high school. He was a little before my time in hs, but his legend persisted for many years here in OR. One of the most coordinated athletes....
Darren Sproles
I know there is no ND connection, but Darren Sproles was unstoppable and could not be tackled in HS. He was legit fast and so short, no one could get at his legs to tackle him. He was a bowling ball with Barry Sanders moves. He was fun to watch, unless you were trying to stop him. Great player for Olathe North HS in Olathe, KS.
I have to go with Chris Spielman
LB/FB for Massillon (OH) Washington High School, a Canton area school. Massillon is where Paul Brown got his start. The team plays in Paul Brown stadium.
Saw him play in a game against their long-time archrival, Canton McKinley. McKinley is a talent pipeline to both OSU and UM. McKinley is located next to the NFL HOF and plays their games in the stadium where the annual HOF kickoff game & HOF ceremonies are conducted. Spielman was simply a man amongst boys. He was on the cover of Wheaties in high school.
Close second to Hiawatha Francisco. Saw him play in a state championship game (Moeller vs Cleveland Padua) in the Akron Rubber Bowl.
Massillon Tigers! Legendary team.
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Dan Marino, The Hawk, Bill Fralic.
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My kids went to HS and ran track with Damien Harris
He ran hard and fast as a HS player. There was always a media circus at home games.
I’m going with Rocket Ismail. He burnt my ass, juked me, I dove at air, he scored a TD. Not kidding
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WOW! Just WOW!
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Wow! You win. Bet you've gotten a lot of miles out of that story.
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My teammate played D1 as a middle linebacker. He says to this day the biggest collision he has ever
taken tackling someone was from Rocket because of the speed he generated. It was Rocket that made me a die hard ND football fan. You don’t get many skill guys out of Wilkes Barre PA that become stars. So when he went to ND, I would watch the games and with Holtz, Zorich and all, I was hooked and have been ever since. Rocket is a super nice guy as is his brother.
THAT is way cool.
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I can laugh about it now. Wasn’t too proud back then. Haha.
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OK. Here we go. These are the ones I remember.....................
Rod Woodson, Josh Barajas, Drayk Bowen, Anthony Johnson, James Aldridge, JoJo Johnson, Rusty Setzer, Jeff Samardzija.
Recently Buchner, Uiagaleilei v Young, Daniels to Amon-Ra, and Chosen Rosen.
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Keith Byars. Talk about a man amongst boys. He definitely was.
That being said, our HS played his team in the playoffs (both local schools) and he didn't get his 100 yards. Our RB did though and we beat them.
And no, I wasn't in HS at the time but, my Brother was on the team. I was a 7th grader.
Also of note:
Kurt Coleman
Jeff Graham
Malik Zaire
Marcus Freeman
Nick Mangold
A.J. Hawk
Big Daddy Dan Wilkinson
Braxton Miller
Nick Coleman (he is tiny)
David Bruton
Some really good players over the years.
I'll start with this, I saw a very awkward HS Sr QB in Chris McCallister
He was very inaccurate and looked slow because he obviously had no clue how to play QB, but he did go on the be drafted #10 overall as a DB.
Best HS player I've seen at that level and go on to have success was Desean Jackson, he just looked super duper fast, just another gear.
Jackrabbit. Where do you live?
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Re: Jackrabbit. Where do you live?
San Diego now, but in Glendale when I saw those guys play
Ohhhhhh....poly has most NFL players ever pretty sure on that. My kids went to Edison and played
Them every year, beat them once in 6 years i went to games.
One word....FAST.
but they couldn’t beat Concord in one of the most anticipated high school games ever
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He kicked Joe Louis' ass!
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Hey, Joe Louis was 137 years old
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Rocky Marciano, Rocky Marciano.
No, in my opinion Joe Louis was the best heavyweight of all time.
O there they go! Everytime I talk about boxing, a white man has to pull Rocky Marciano out their ass
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You don't know no Martin Luther da king.
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F**k you, f**k you, and f**k you. :) Who's next?
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Years ago, my high school in Nebraska went west to play at Grand Island, NE, for a state title.
A GI player wearing #44 clobbered our offense from his linebacker position and was unstoppable as a running back. That same #44 was a star fullback for the Cornhuskers and a fixture of the 49ers title teams: Tom Rathman.
Friggn wrecking ball.
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