OT: What High School did you go to? And how were they in Sports?

Submitted by M-Wolverine on

I've seen some school trash talk going on in some threads over the last few weeks, and now that signing day is done, and it's things are slowing down again, I thought I'd see-

For those that want to reveal that much info about themselves, where did you go to school, was the Football team good? (Or great, if in a State other than Michigan that we'd recognize it). Who were your rivals? Any great memories? Or were you a basketball school? Or just not good at sports and such.

Me? Dearborn Fordson Tractors, great football, great tradition, winner for years and years, and origin of our newest preferred walk-on (Which is the thread this all got started for me...though I've seen more trash talk just recently). Only a handful of schools sport a better winning percentage, even fewer at the same level. Even less if you take the Catholic schools out of it (*cough*cough* recruiting*ahem*). But yeah, that's the limit of my smack talk.

How about you? What were you before you were a Michigan Man (or woman)?

jg2112

February 18th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^

in Wisconsin. Home of Brent Moss, Kevin Barry, Chris Maragos for 3 years....and RB John Clay. Park won the state football title in 1988, and in 2006 (when Clay ran for 256 yards and 3 40+ yard TDs in the title game).

Currently, Park's basketball team is 18-0 and second in the state.

And we sport Florida Gator colors.

the_big_house 500th

February 18th, 2010 at 3:25 PM ^

Hilliard Darby High School in Hilliard Ohio. Not a bad high school, the sports were pretty average. We have produced some recent names in college football such as Jeremey Ebert a WR at Northwestern, Antonio Jeramiah a defensive lineman at MSU and a few others who I can't recall which college they play for or got accepted to. We did have a player who went all the way into the NFL and played for the Rams. Our mascot was the Panther and our fight song was LSU's.

shorts

February 18th, 2010 at 3:26 PM ^

I went to Blissfield, and our football team didn't win a game in my four years. Fortunately the program is WAY better now, but baseball has been and always will be king in that tiny town.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

What, did your chance in the other threads to brag about your school's football team pass you by?

Anyway, GP South, and we suck for the most part at football. And of course the first time in many, many years, if ever, that we send a scholarship football player to a I-A school, he goes to Ohio State. Much more of a hockey and swimming and baseball school, anyway.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 3:48 PM ^

2000. No state championships during my time, but the hockey team made the finals one year and the baseball team won the year after I left.

But I did have a (very small) hand in starting the unbroken run of division titles in swimming, which has been going strong since 1999.

EDIT: oh yeah, as far as state championships, girl's hockey did win like a whole bunch of 'em in a row, but there are/were like only six or eight teams in the state.

TG7782

February 18th, 2010 at 4:15 PM ^

I graduated from GPN in 2000. I played lacrosse and soccer, and as I recall we were not very good at football outside of my freshman year. Actually most sports weren't that great, I guess girls basketball, although we were always decent at soccer and lost in the state final in lacrosse when I was a senior.

Edit:

Dave Legwand of the Nashville Predators went here, I had a class with him as a junior.

Sambojangles

February 18th, 2010 at 4:34 PM ^

I'm GPS '08. Don't forget girls tennis--they were state runners-up, I think, a few years ago.

In addition to the guy who went to OSU from the class of '09, Chris Getz (KC Royals, formerly ChiSox, in addition to Michigan) graduated from South. They're retiring his number this season, I heard.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 8:43 PM ^

I totally forgot about tennis. Boys' tennis was better than girls' back when I was there - pretty phenomenal team and in fact now that I think about it, we had some state champion doubles players too.

Funny that most of these top sports at South always had to play their home games/meets elsewhere.

Don

February 18th, 2010 at 10:25 PM ^

Class of '71. When I was there we were great in swimming and tennis, not so much in football and basketball. No hockey, soccer, or lacrosse back then. Not sure about if girls' field hockey was being played, either.

We were members of the old Border Cities League, which included Fordson, Wyandotte Roosevelt, Highland Park, Royal Oak Dondero, and one or two other schools I can't remember. My final year of football was JV, during which I tore ligaments in both shoulders. A big fullback from Dondero ran me over and knocked me silly during one game. Odd thing is I ended up marrying a girl who went to Dondero.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 10:44 PM ^

Holy shit, you predate the S Building. Shame - you never got to take part in one of the better traditions: telling a freshman to take five left turns before he got to the classroom he was looking for.

Two questions: did the football team suck as bad back then as they did thirty years later, and didn't the swim team win a state championship or two way back in the late '60s?

Never realized we had so many Blue Devils on the board. Good times.

Don

February 19th, 2010 at 12:43 AM ^

but maybe it's that big ugly addition that fronts on Fisher Rd?

The football team won a conference title my sophomore year ('69) but went downhill the next two years. The creation of GP North (in '70) diluted what paltry football talent there was in GP to begin with and I think the rapid decline of the GPS football fortunes are connected to the split. A receiver on the '67 or '68 team went on to play for Nebraska, which was a power back then under Bob Devaney.

Swimming was a different matter—we won a state championship in '69 and perhaps one more before then or after. Tennis was pretty strong when I was there, too. Gee, swimming and tennis strength in Grosse Pointe—who would guess?

After injuring my shoulders in JV football my athletic exploits were limited to track and cross country. Without a doubt the latter was the most miserable athletic experience in my life. I'm not one to have regrets about the past, but one I do have is that I didn't play baseball instead of being a mediocre-at-best middle distance guy on the track team. Fielding grounders would have been a hell of a lot more fun than running sixteen quarter-miles during track practice.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 19th, 2010 at 7:31 AM ^

Don't know what the S building is exactly but maybe it's that big ugly addition that fronts on Fisher Rd?

Yup. It's a square with staircases on three of the sides. "How do I get to such and such a class?" "Oh, that's easy, you go to the S building over there, take a left, take another left, go up the stairs and then go left three more times and you're there."

Gee, swimming and tennis strength in Grosse Pointe—who would guess?

Shocking :) However, it's highly possible that the tennis coach was and is the same guy.

How would you have swung a bat with two messed up shoulders?

SAvoodoo

February 19th, 2010 at 9:33 AM ^

Also GPS (03). I was one year behind Getz and the baseball team was great while I was there. Basketball however went 2-the rest of the games one of my years, and football wasn't much better if I remember correctly.

Edit: Women's volleyball and lax were also great but for entirely different reasons. Good times...

Sethgoblue

February 18th, 2010 at 4:17 PM ^

While football has been up and down since the two state championships in the 1980s, Pioneer has been dominant in a plethora of other sports. Pioneer consistently wins state titles in tennis and swimming for both boys and girls. The girls track team is the most dominant in the state, and the same goes for field hockey. Both water polo teams are not only state, but regional powers. Add in that teams like boys cross country, boys track, boys basketball, baseball and golf (both) have won or competed for state titles in the last few years and the Pioneer AD looks even better. The Pioneers were also consistently the best program in Class and top 3 overall every year when the Ann Arbor News tabulated a Director's Cup-like formulation for the top school in the state based on team performance in state tournaments. When SI did a thing on top high school programs in the country, it was criminal that Pioneer was left out, especially because they listed a UP school as the top program, when those schools don't even compete with the rest of the state in most sports!

M-Wolverine

February 18th, 2010 at 10:59 PM ^

Now if we could just keep all that Olmpic sport talent pipelining to Michigan...it's always pains me when some really good swimmer or diver goes somewhere else.

And the girl's track thing is amazing, when you consider the Ann Arbor talent pool.

And of course, Fordson beat them this year. ;-) But I'm no hater. That's where my kids will probably go, if they ever exist.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 4:27 PM ^

My swim coach used to always schedule Pio for us (and always make it a road meet on purpose) because we were a pretty good team but he wanted us to see what an actual good team looked like (and swam in) and not get our heads too full of ourselves.

Jon Benke

February 18th, 2010 at 3:31 PM ^

Our football team was beyond bad.
Our basketball team wasn't any good.
Our baseball team was below average.
Our track teams were always good.
Our wrestling team was always good, always had kids goin' to states, and we even had a couple state champions.
Our band was awesome!

Smitty D

February 18th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

03 Grad
Football team is very very good. Numerous Division titles, Many district titles and regional titles, unfortunaly we cannot close the deal in states, damn catholic schools lol

Baseball team has turned into a powerhouse. State champs in 06

Basketball team, district title in 03 other than that not good

tricks574

February 18th, 2010 at 11:16 PM ^

Although it was STA back then right? I'm from Richmond, so I've seen a lot of Algonac, and I think your sports have largely reversed rolls since then. Football got decent, Basketball is actually pretty dang good, and wrestling has fallen off the map.

We are pretty good at most sports, at least in the area. We're always in the mix for league titles in Cross Country and long distance track runners on both boys and girls, football, basketball, softball, baseball, and soccer. I know we've won 1 soccer state title, and our cheerleaders are very competitive on the state level. It's really all about wrestling though, we've got 3 team state titles, in 2000, 2002, and 2006, 3 or 4 more state finals appearences, 8 or 9 regional titles, and 13 district titles in a row. We're pretty good this year too, just beat the #8 team in D3 60-13 or something close to that to advance to Battle Creek. Oddly enough, we only have 2 individual state champions, thanks to an incredible string of bad luck that involved one wrestler placing 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd in each year of his career.

The Shredder

February 18th, 2010 at 3:33 PM ^

Went to Greenville High in Michigan(2002).

I played basketball and we were ranked as high as 8th in the state. We were beat in playoffs by the number 1 ranked team Rockford(a few points).

In football we were knocked out in the 2nd round.