OT - I Played with/against that guy

Submitted by JeepinBen on

Sparked by the Tigers Call up thread, I was wondering who all here had good stories playing with/against people who made it. I've seen on the boards people who played high school football against so-and-so and I've always found it interesting.

Only person I can think of that I played against was Phil Kessel. Freshman year of high school his team (Madison Capitals) dominated the midwest league we were playing in. I was a goalie and the best game I've ever played was against that team. 0-0 with three minutes left, I made about 50 saves on the night, we had taken 7 shots (his whole team was amazing, they went undefeated). With 3 minutes left their team gets a penalty shot. Kessel takes it, bears down on me, and burns me. Bad. We lost 3-0, but it was their closest game all year, and it was really sweet to see him playing on Team USA at the Olympics.

So what about you guys? Who tackled Kevin Grady? Who got dunked on by Petway? Let's hear some of the old glory stories

goMichblue

July 7th, 2010 at 5:42 PM ^

I played against Jon Runyan (Carmen-Ainsworth High) and Earnest Sanders (Flint Beecher; played a year or two for UM as a DB than transfered).

 

Was tackled by Runyan on a sweep right.  I turned the corner to see a 6 foot 7 monster and no blockers in front of me (I'm 5 foot 4).  I knew after that play that he was  a very nice guy cause he could of clobbered me, instead he just fell on me.  I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I turned that corner.  Never had  a player take it easy on a hit before.  Still a big fan of his since he let me live. He was very very good at basketball also.

Sanders on the other hand liked to hit the hell out of people and talk after.  Man could that kid run and hit.  I don't comprehend the talent level of folks who are successful at the D one level, I thought Sanders was going to be a super star.  He was three steps faster than everyone on the field at the high school level. 

rdlwolverine

July 7th, 2010 at 5:49 PM ^

Franco Harris, Lawrence Taylor,  former Wolverines Wayman Britt, Joel Thompson and John Robinson, and IM and pickup against Bruce Buckley (UNC) and several other former D-I basketball players over the years.  Britt, Thompson and Robinson were still at Michigan when I played against them, Taylor was at UNC and Harris was near the end of his career with Pittsburgh.

Harris had the ball on a break and I set up to take the charge near the foul line, and he did what any good Steeler fan would have predicted, he avoided the contact and veered toward the sideline.

Tubes

July 7th, 2010 at 5:53 PM ^

He played up a few years on one of my travel teams when I was 11 and he was 8 or 9.  I don't remember him at all, but my dad recognized his dad at a game when I was in college.  Talk about a surprise.

king_kerridge

July 7th, 2010 at 5:55 PM ^

I played basketball for Traverse City Central and our first game every year was against Saginaw.

My senior year, late in the game I stole the ball on a cross-court pass and was heading the other way when I saw Woodley in my rear-view mirror, I went up for the lay-up wondering if I would live to tell about it, he fouled me and I made it.

Best moment of my sports career, not often can you say you had an and-1 against one of the greatest Michigan players and a Super Bowl champion.

 

jmstranger

July 7th, 2010 at 5:58 PM ^

I played against former UM basketball player Graham Brown back in H.S. He was a man among boys playing against our little Class D schools up north.

TyroneButterfield

July 7th, 2010 at 6:00 PM ^

Played against Kevin Grady and tried the patented CB dive at the ankles only to get completely smashed backwards.  I played with MSU FB Andrew Hawken and against MSU QB Keith Nichol and also CMU WR Bryan Anderson
.  I also played against unkown o-lineman Jared Veldheer from HIllsdale who was drafted in the third round this year.

QVIST

July 7th, 2010 at 8:32 PM ^

I may know you. You went to my high school if you played with Andrew Hawken.



Back on topic: I've mentioned this before, but my rugby team played against Obi Ezeh's the year before I joined. All I heard was horror stories about  him just running through fools. Not to mention the team he was on won eight straight state titles and according to my coaches, he wasn't even the best player on the team.

The only other somewhat notable people I've played sports with/against are MAC/GVSU guys. Nothing like the rest of the stories here.

Space Coyote

July 7th, 2010 at 6:07 PM ^

Dar Tucker (DePaul), JaNathan Bullock (Cleveland St), Anthony Crater (was tOSU), and Tory Jackson (ND), some ok names to throw out there.  My brother played against basically all the Flintstones, so that's impressive.  More impressive is my cousin once dated Drew Henson for a couple months, so I guess you could say she played with... that's just not right for me to say.

SAvoodoo

July 7th, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^

I played tee-ball with prince fielder.  My dad was the coach of the team and Cecil was the "assisstant coach" which meant he showed up when he could and signed stuff for us.  Even back then he was considerably bigger than every other kid, and could hit it a mile (at least what seemed like a mile to us). 

2 Walter Smith

July 7th, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^

football games with Kirk Herbstreit.  Kirk is a few years older than me.  He would pick the youngest and smallest kids to play on his team, and we would go out and play all day.  I would come home with bruise marks on my chest from where his spirals would hit.  He was an awesome option QB in high school.

At Michigan, I played a pickup basketball game with Ray Jackson.

WolvinLA2

July 7th, 2010 at 6:11 PM ^

Funny you used that as an example, but I tackled Grady a couple times.  Granted, I was a senior and he was a freshman.  In track, as a freshman or sophomore, I was lined up in between Charles Rogers and Kelly Baraka, at what must have been the state meet in the 100M.  I was a fast kid, and they blew my doors off (as they did to just about everyone else).

Nard Dogg

July 7th, 2010 at 6:18 PM ^

I played with Adam Morrison in high school. Okay, we played tennis, not basketball. Mock if you will (and I would probably join you), but he does have two rings...

VectorVictor05

July 7th, 2010 at 6:24 PM ^

Grant Mason's OLSM team beat us in the quarterfinals my senior year....that team was insanely loaded.  I think 9 kids played D-I eventually.  We hung in there but came up short.  Best part of the game was Mason taking a punt back about 75 yards and literally de-cleating our punter with a stiff-arm at about the 20 yd. line.  Poor guy took a perfect angle and got lit up.

I scrimmaged both Marcus Taylor and Paul Davis at summer team camps in multiple years.  Taylor was a beast and was a pretty classy guy.  Paul Davis was a bitch and a whiner.  We had two kids that were about 6'3" and built really well that just bodied him up the whole time...poor Davis at 6'9" couldn't do a thing.  But then we saw him in the bleachers talking to Izzo afterward and realized you can't coach measurables....he makes millions now in the NBA.  Life is a bitch.

VectorVictor05

July 7th, 2010 at 6:29 PM ^

I saw some UofM IM / pick-up stories above so I figured I'd share those too...

I knew Jason Avant pretty well from working with the team, so I would head to the IM and play pick-up with him and Braylon and a few others.  Jason was sick at bball...was very highly rated out of high school I believe.  I filled in for their IM team a couple times and basically threw lobs to Braylon and Marlin the whole time.....I don't even remember breaking a sweat.

mikejc1997

July 7th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^

Kevin Grady, Kelvin Grady, TJ Duckett, Little John Flowers, Kelly Baraka, Obi Ezeh, Devin Gardner, Brad Jones (EL...now with the Packers)...I'm sure there are others I am forgetting.  Oddly enough, the best of the bunch was Kelvin Grady.

Clarence Beeks

July 8th, 2010 at 8:41 AM ^

Yeah, he was good.  I played against them when they ran that set up.  Duckett was an absolute load at QB (which you know, since you coached against them) and the combination of the two of them made for a pretty formidable tandem on the option.  If my memory serves me correctly, they weren't surrounded by much other talent, though, so the fact that they got as far as they did says a lot about the talent that those two had.  They also weren't well coached, but that's a different story.  What's your take from coaching against them?

mikejc1997

July 8th, 2010 at 5:30 PM ^

I remember Duckett walked past our locker room with his shirt off....that got us a little off our game...wow.  From watching film I thought he was a bit fat and slow....oops.  It was also our first playoff game ever and our kids were a bit intimidated.  We got off to a slow start but came back and failed on a 4th down at the end...lost 26-23.  I thought they would have been better off handing the ball to TJ 25 times a game and having LJF play wideout....maybe they didn't have any other options at QB???  LJF was an absolute stud on the defensive side of the ball...locked down our best WR and talked massive amounts of trash.

Clarence Beeks

July 10th, 2010 at 7:28 PM ^

I remember Duckett walked past our locker room with his shirt off....that got us a little off our game...wow.  From watching film I thought he was a bit fat and slow....oops.

That dude was just a friggin' absolute physicial specimen.  He was definitely faster than it looked like he was.  I'm guessing that had a lot to do with his size.  The most impressive thing to me, though, was how strong he was for how fast he was.  If I remember correctly he was one of the top performers nationwide in shot put his junior and senior year of high school.

I thought they would have been better off handing the ball to TJ 25 times a game and having LJF play wideout....maybe they didn't have any other options at QB???

Yeah, that's about right, from what I remember.  That team was absolutely devoid of any passing talent at quarterback.  Duckett really was made that team click.  Before he went up to varsity they were pretty awful, even with Flowers.

I think I was at this playoff game you're talking about, actually.  I can't remember for the life of who Norrix played (i.e. who you were coaching for), though.

jrt336

July 7th, 2010 at 7:04 PM ^

I played against Austin White probably 7-8 times in basketball. Kid was a freak. Also played in a flag football game against Nike Palazeti (MSU signee), and a CMU LB signee. I played in another flag football tournament that Mike Martin was in, but never played his team. He was a beast though.

bklein09

July 7th, 2010 at 7:08 PM ^

My senior year of HS football, my team defeated Jeremy Maclin's (mizzou/NFL) team when they were ranked in the top five in the state. I played guard on the offensive line so thank god I didn't have to try and tackle him. He had a 60-70 yard screen pass td in the game.

On my same team were four players that went division 1 and have had varying success:

Stephen Simmons-rb-northwestern
Paul Chaney-wr-Iowa
Niko mafuli-dt-northwestern
Matt herzberg-lb-air force

tpilews

July 7th, 2010 at 7:19 PM ^

I hit a homerun off of Chad Billingsley, of the Dodgers. I was teammates with Mitch Maier in college; he plays for the Royals. I've hit a few homers off of Justin Thomas of the Pirates. Played against quite a few guys in the majors while in college. Brain Bixler of the Indians, Nolan Reimold of the Orioles

goblueram

July 7th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^

Nothing special, played on a team with Sparty hockey Trevor Nill.  You guys remember Lavell Blanchard?  Guy plays volleyball all the time over at Elbel...beastly.  

BlueAggie

July 7th, 2010 at 7:50 PM ^

I played against Leo Henige (Chesaning) once.  They were the defending state champs and we were not good (1-8).  Our defense used a big-boy/little-guy double nose tackle arrangement.  Our coach got the idea of using the little guy (ours was 5'5", 125#) to take out Henige at the snap by tying up his ankles and bringing him down, leaving the big guy free to clog up the middle. 

Unfortunately, we played a 6-2 (or sort of a 4-4 with the OLB's rolled up) so they just hooked our OLB and ran outside sweeps all day long.  After suffering numerous injuries, we ended the game with 12 guys still able to play.  At one point, our safety and one of the corners knocked each other out trying to track down the same overthrown ball.  It was not pretty.  The locker room at halftime resembled a ER triage.

On the plus side, we got to spend Monday watching film of big Leo flopping on our tiny NT (all we could see of the NT was arms and legs, high comedy).  The NT, who was pretty much a walking bruise, was not nearly as amused as the rest of us.

Our sole win (both that year and next) came against Garrett Bushong and Ionia.  Bushong later played at Purdue and distinguished himself by writing one of the all-time dumbest letters to the editor in history.

bleedzblue

July 7th, 2010 at 8:06 PM ^

I went to Northville H.S. from 96' to 00', in football we played Drew Henson and Dave Pierson. Pierson was actually their fullback and was an absolute bitch to tackle, he was quite agile and quick for being a bowling ball. I was only a junior and played saftey and still remember him breaking through the LOS and barreling straight at me, it was not fun at the time. We played against Stanton and Shabi as well when F.H. Harrison was just wrecking everyone. My senior year Mitch Maier who is the Royals centerfielder was Novi's QB and a great athlete.

My Soph year I got moved up to varsity bball for the playoffs and in the state regional we played against Detroit Central and Antonio Gates. I'll never forget the first play of the game their point guard threw a 3/4 court alley oop, Gates climbed the ladder and threw it down. Great thread, brings back a lot of memories from the glory days.

BrayBray1

July 7th, 2010 at 8:15 PM ^

with/against Drew Nietzel (MSU)....Dude had skills beyond his years. He was also a duel-threat QB on my Brother's football team in 5th grade, where he also excelled, but rumor is his Dad made him quit after an injury so he wouldn't fuck up his B-Ball career.

 

I also played in a pick-up game with Charles Rogers once. Afterward, we all got stoned. Good times.

mrduckworthb

July 7th, 2010 at 8:38 PM ^

I played against Derek Dennis in my senior year of high school. He was a true freshman this past year on Michigan's baseball team. He was like 3rd or clean-up in his high school line-up and the first pitch he seen, he cranked it over the center field fence. It was his senior year as well. I'm pretty sure he only played like the first 3 innings (don't want to tire your superstar in a non-league game), but we did come back from somewhere around 7-2 to lose 7-6. It was a fun game.

EDIT: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/dennis_derek00.html (Seems like he didn't have to bad of a year for a true freshman. Not all-american numbers but not bad at all.)

 - This isn't me, but my cousin played against Kevin Grady in 7th and 8th grade football. He brought him down as he was trying to break his way out of the mess of the line. Other than that he was a man among boys and my cousin had very little luck with him. He also said he played against him in middle school basketball and said he was dunking before their game in 8th grade and that there wasn't really anything anybody on his team could do about him.

pdgoblue25

July 7th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^

Yes, the same Scooter that got caught shaving points as a RB at Toledo.  I played against all three of those guys in the 8th grade CYO city basketball tournament in northeast Ohio.  Gonzo was really the only good player on his team but he was a ridiculous athlete even then, Scooter looked like a linebacker, and Morrisey shot lights out.  We played Morrisey's Gesu team in the championship and we were up 2 points with a last second in bounds play to Morrisey and he got his shot blocked, remember it like it was yesterday.  Morrisey went on to start 4 years of SG for Penn State.

I went to Ohio State (long story) and ended up at a urinal next to Gonzo at a campus bar.  After we finished our business I turned to him and said, "Hey Gonzo, you went to St. Joseph's academy right?  He replied, "holy shit, how did you know that?? you from the Cleveland Area?  I said, "Yeah, I remember because we kicked your ass in the CYO city tournament.  To that day he was still pissed about it and remembered it very well, seemed like an ok guy, and I got a funny story out of it.

WoodleyIsBeast

July 7th, 2010 at 9:11 PM ^

roller hockey on a team with Kevin Porter for a few years during the ice offsesason.  Definitely knew he would amount to a dominant player.  I also played pick up ball with Dre Bly and Shaun Rogers. 

I also used to go dragonslaying with Zach Follett.

JC3

July 7th, 2010 at 9:16 PM ^

I played against Henne for one year before moving to Michigan. He was really good, but at that point I wasn't really into recruiting and didn't know where he was going. He lit us up for sure.

A lot of OSU/PSU guys played with me/against me in high school, but I can't name any off the top of my head.

learmanj

July 7th, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^

I got pulled up to varsity for basketball playoffs.  I got put in with about 30 seconds left before halftime when we were playing Caro.  Well, I played point guard and well.....my very first pass was picked off.  So, trying to make a more favorable impression on the coach, I rushed back on defense and set up in the lane to take a charge.  Too bad the guy who ended up with the ball was Josh Asselin.  He threw it down on top of me, knocked me over, and I chickened out at the last second so I got a foul called on me.  Needless to say my first and only experience on varsity that year lasted about 13 seconds since the coach pulled me immediately.

Clarence Beeks

July 8th, 2010 at 8:46 AM ^

I should probably be ashmed that my men's league hockey team in Pittsburgh had a couple of Stanley Cup rings on it that we didn't disclose it to the league...  Oops... Haha

juiceman

July 7th, 2010 at 10:08 PM ^

I played against Defender Jay Demerit when he was with Illinois-Chicago, now the USMNT.  There's a guy that goes unnoticed, undrafted in the MLS, then finds himself playing in the Premier League and World Cup. 

 

Steve in PA

July 7th, 2010 at 10:10 PM ^

I don't even know if it could be called wrestling.  He mopped the mat with me for two periods until my shoulder (and rotator cuff) finally had enough.  He officially ended any hopes I had of pursuing baseball after my 10th grade year.

Mr Hughes went on to wrestle at Penn State, become a B10 Champion at his weight class, and is the HS coach at his former school.  While he did that I graduated college, got married, fat, and had kids.  I think we're pretty much even.