Not sure where to put this so I'll stick it here and let the chips fall where they will.

Has anybody ever played alongside someone who went on to become a pro athlete? My question is---how much better than everyone else is a future pro?

The best I ever played with seemed pretty good but none of them were anywhere near pro caliber. I'm just trying to imagine what these kind of guys look like in HS.

I'm thinking mainly football but any sport would be relevant.

I haven't been I am around a D2 football program that has some Pro's in the NFL.

Some of the coaches told me that if you have an NFL starter in D2, they will look like a man among boys. They just stand out by so much that it's impossible to notice.

Cant' say I grew up with him, but I lived in the dorm room next to Adam Vinatieri for 3 years at South Dakota State.

Couldn't have been a nicer guy. We had 5 or so classes together since we had the same major.

No - but in middle school, we played against the team in Sharonville, i think it was Princeton. Anyway, that entire week the coach said Spencer Ware to the point if i heard it again i would of shot myself.

Anyways, he was miles better than anyone on that field. He was actually a QB, but ran pretty much every time. Quick as can be. But was super slippery, you couldnt tackle him below the waist, because if you tried, youd look up and he would he 20 yards up field

My wife went to high school with Dane Sanzenbacher. She was a senior his freshman year.

Played against Josh Mauga. He's a LB for the Chiefs, who is on IR.


He played for Fallon (NV) in high school. He was essentially the face of that school because they had such a shitty program and history. He was called up to varsity his sophomore year and became their identity at RB and LB. The game plan was always focused on him.

I knew Tyson Walter pretty well when I was at Ohio State. He was the LT after Orlando Pace. He caught a lot of hell for suing LeCharles Bentley after a fight in practice. Played a couple of years in Dallas.

Well, I'm an old timer, so these names may not register with many. But I played high school basketball with Gary Bradds, a future all-american at Ohio State, who later played in the NBA and the ABA. His grandson is playing at Belmont right now, and last year led the nation in field goal percentage.

One of our opponents for a couple of years was Barry Clemens, who had a long career with the Chicago Bulls.

In football, I was close to Roland James, because I played with his father. Roland was an all-American at Tennessee, and played for the Patriots for several seasons.

In each of these cases, yes, those people were overwhelming in high school. Bradds once scored 65 points in about three quarters of a high school game, and Roland, in addition to dominating in football, won both the high and low hurdles in the Ohio State Track Meet as both a junior and senior.

Roland also broke my 25-year-old school record in the high jump, and he wasn't even a high jumper. He just walked over and tried it one night.

Went to highschool in Virginia , torrey smith was my quarterback. We were 6-1 looking easily to make playoffs and then he punched some kid for bullying his sister . Broke his throwing hand we lost the next 3 games .

also my best friend at the time was the wr dexter mcdougle . He is now on the jets, he's been struggling with injuries though . Both went to Maryland for college

I only know of one actual pro player, but that wasn't directly thru me. In college a fraternity brother was a PE major, and one of his courses, was direct coaching with a youth football team. Just so happens that semester he helped coach Chris Carter when he was 15-16 years old or so. He raved about him, and I guess rightly so.

I've played against two. One was just a pick up game, the other was high school.

I played Terrell Pryor in high school when he played for Jeanette. I played for East Allegheny. We were both undefeated....and we lost 77-10. Hated him from that point on.

Played against Rob Gronkowski while he went to school in Woodland Hills. He's actually a really nice guy believe it or not. Typical meathead, but not a douche about it.

Back in the early 2000's I went to Montana State University. My chemistry lab partner was a CB named Joey Thomas who was later drafted by Green Bay in the 3rd or 4th round. He never really played much in GB. In working with him I noticed he relied on everyone else to do his stuff. When I'd ask him how he was going to do on test day he'd always respond with, "Depends on how my neighbor does". He never studied. It probably carried over to his football career and that's why he didn't succeed. That's a shame because physically the guy was extremely talented, but that's probably why he was at Montana State and not a larger school.

I played against Christian and Jason Peter in High School. They were monsters.
A High School teammate of mine played DT for the Cardinals for a few years.

Probably no one anyone here recognizes....but I played Babe Ruth ball with Darren Burton (KC Royals )....and Josh Anderson (Houston Astros/Atlanta Braves ). Both were great players....but one kid from our age group was actually better and never made it.  He sells insurance and ironically took over coaching the high school team back home.

Also....my uncle played summer ball with Doug Flynn many moons ago.

(01-04-2017, 04:11 PM)McC Wrote: Not sure where to put this so I'll stick it here and let the chips fall where they will.

Has anybody ever played alongside someone who went on to become a pro athlete?  My question is---how much better than everyone else is a future pro?

The best I ever played with seemed pretty good but none of them were anywhere near pro caliber.  I'm just trying to imagine what these kind of guys look like in HS.

I'm thinking mainly football but any sport would be relevant.

I played sport in high school with a couple of people who became pro athletes in Australia, one was a lot more talented than everyone else in our team, was just naturally gifted.

The other was nowhere near the best in the team or the competition, he just worked incredibly hard. I would have predicted one to have a long career and but the other was a complete surprise. He was also a really nice guy and everytime I've ran into him has always came up to me and said hello using my name and having a knowledge of my life, we were never close but he is just a genuine guy.

I played against Carson Wentz. His team was the only team to beat us but he didn't seem special to me at the time.

(01-04-2017, 04:11 PM)McC Wrote: Not sure where to put this so I'll stick it here and let the chips fall where they will.

Has anybody ever played alongside someone who went on to become a pro athlete?  My question is---how much better than everyone else is a future pro?

The best I ever played with seemed pretty good but none of them were anywhere near pro caliber.  I'm just trying to imagine what these kind of guys look like in HS.

I'm thinking mainly football but any sport would be relevant.

I know someone who played against Kevin Garnett in High school, Trust me you know pretty quickly... they are the real deal.

Not really the same but my uncle is friends with Wyche. Last I heard they still email back and forth from time to time.

Grew up and went to high school in New Richmond with Dwayne Woodruff. He was a couple of years ahead of me in school. (starting cornerback for the Steelers for 12 seasons) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_Woodruff

Although a Steeler who picked off Kenny Anderson, he is/was a heck of a nice guy. As for how much better he was than everyone else in High School, he was All County in just about every sport if I remember right. He basically dominated in football, basketball and track. Now a Judge in Pittsburgh...

Never met the guy personally but my high school played against Brian Leonard when I was in middle school (I believe he graduated before I reached high school)