Who is the Best Athlete you've ever played against?

Submitted by Dr. Emil Shuffhausen on

I don't remember how many yards he had against us his Sophmore

year when we beat them 8-6 on the road,

but his Junior Year he had only 67 yards on 11 carries. 

 

It was 1989 and Saline just beat Dearborn Heights Robichaud for the

2nd year in a row for our first game of the season.

I remember watching the scout film on him with his incredibly long stride

and ridiculous speed.  How the hell we beat them 24-0 at home

will always be a prideful memory.

 

He was none other than my future favorite 

Michigan Running Back -  Tyrone Wheatley. 

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Football

ElBictors

May 16th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^

He'd also verballed to CMU as a Soph and could have gone to many bigger programs by his Sr year, but stuck to the Chips. He's also killing it at Grand Canyon Univ in Phoenix. Jeff runs all the Majerles Sports Bars in area.

Joined: 03/27/2015

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JClay

May 14th, 2016 at 11:23 PM ^

Rudi Johnson. I was in tenth grade gym and he was a senior in gym. Three on three basketball. I was a dorky white kid who had to go out and cover whoever was playing guard and he'd come out and call for the ball just so he could drive on me and just posterize/obliterate me as he ran threw me for a dunk. Dude was functionally illiterate but good lord was he an athlete.



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Goggles Paisano

May 15th, 2016 at 8:01 AM ^

Avery for me too.  Baseball and basketball.  We beat their basketball team in a x-mas tourney and he was pissed.  He got a breakaway at the end of the game and threw it down.  I played him twice in baseball and he did not pitch either time.  I have always been bummed about that - would have been fun to face him.  

Joined: 07/30/2011

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ElBictors

May 15th, 2016 at 1:20 PM ^

My team played against Avery too. Baseball where he 1-hit us in the first game and played SS in the second ..as a Lefty. I did not play and was a couple years younger than he was. Saw him in Denver when he was with the Braves. We were at a bar after the game where a bunch of Braves players had wound up and knew the bar manager so got into the team area. He was hammered. I told him how we'd played in HS and he high fives me and was totally cool. Then he left with two chicks. I asked if he was pitching the next day and he laughed something like, "Nah, I don't start until Thursday!"

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BVB1

May 14th, 2016 at 11:35 PM ^

I had the unfortunate pleasure of anchoring the 4x100m for my high school at the 2000 regionals in Saginaw. On the inside was Stu Schweigert while Charles Rogers was on my outside. It was pretty demoralizing receiving the baton in a tie for first place only to have two guys run 10.4ish splits and make my 10.9 (a PR) look like I belonged in middle school.

Joined: 03/18/2015

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WolvinLA2

May 15th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^

I was in the 100 finals at a meet, in the Lansing area i believe, with Schweigert, Rogers and Kelly Baraka.  Those three are still three of the fastest sprinters in the history of the state, and the other 5 of us all looked at eachother like, "Wanna race for fourth?"  It was a bloodbath.

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TrueBlue2003

May 15th, 2016 at 2:17 AM ^

he was the best pure athlete I played against, and luckily, I never had to play him in his best sport.

My track team ran against his team in middle school, so when he made us look like we belonged in middle school, at least we actually were.  He took the baton with his team behind by almost 100 meters in the 4X200 and he almost caught my buddy who was anchoring our team.  It was like he was on ice skates with my buddy in quicksand.

Played against his Saginaw team in basketball when we were HS seniors and he was nasty.  I think there's still some film somewhere of him dunking on me. That probably could have been his best sport if he wanted to work at it.

After that regional you mentioned in track, the state meet was a classic with Stu, Charles and Kelly Baraka. Kelly won the 100, Stu the 200 and Charles the 400, IIRC.  The 200 meter race in which all three participated was one for the ages.

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JHendo

May 14th, 2016 at 11:31 PM ^

Lamar Woodley. Junior Year we played Saginaw...it was a massacre. I was the left guard and one play I had the honor of doing a same side pull right at him: he stopped me in my tracks, picked me straight up in the air, gently tossed me to the side, made the tackle, and then ran back over and lifted me back up on my feet and said "nice block." He was so damn good that a nice block was someone momentarily getting in his way, and to this day, that is my lasting football claim to fame. As even more testament to him, I at the time was 6'2", 270 and being recruited by a couple MAC schools, so the whole getting manhandled thing thing was completely foreign to me. Honorable mention goes to Zach Putnam. I always wanted to be out of the lineup whenever he was on the mound.

Joined: 10/25/2008

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JHendo

May 15th, 2016 at 9:33 AM ^

Almost 14 years later, I (fortunately) don't have much memory from that game. I was offense only, so I didn't go up against him, All I remember of him was that we knew he was headed to Michigan with Lamar. Besides the incident with Lamar and the score (30-7, I believe), the only thing I recall is knocking down Anthony Rogers with a cheap shot on a play as he was taunting one of my teammates he just knocked down himself. Oh, also, the other defensive end would dive at your knees when you pulled to take you out: a very dangerous yet effective way to make sure a pulling guard half asses his pulls for the rest of the game. They were an extremely well coached team.

Joined: 10/25/2008

MGoPoints: 13993

ironman4579

May 14th, 2016 at 11:39 PM ^

Played one game against Eik Bedard when I was about 12 or 13.  He wasn't pitching though. They had some kid we called "Lumpy" because he already looked like a bodybuilder at that age.  I mean, this kid had no neck.  Also played with and against a bunch of guys that played in the NHL.

Joined: 11/08/2009

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SGBlue

May 14th, 2016 at 11:32 PM ^

Jerry Meter was a senior and Captain (of course) of my high school team when I was a sophomore on the JV. We scrimmaged against the varsity pre-season, and during kick-off coverage I had the unfortunate job of trying to block him. He hit me so hard I thought I had been electrocuted. Hell of an athlete...



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kb

May 14th, 2016 at 11:32 PM ^

Aloysius Anagone in basketball...dude was a monsterous human being. I played AAU basketball on the same team as TJ Duckett and Little John Flowers. Sorry for Sparty mentions in this post.

Joined: 10/31/2009

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I'm Batman

May 15th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^

I struck out Jeter in a Little League game back in the day, but also gave up two hits. Played pick up ball against TJ Duckett at the Greenwood basketball court when he was a senior in high school. That kid's was freaking stacked.

Joined: 08/18/2014

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MGoStretch

May 15th, 2016 at 1:28 PM ^

Though I had the distinct pleasure of matching up with him (as a 6'5", 185lb center) through my senior year as we were in the same league. That being said, he's #2 or 3 on my list. Antonio Gates in basketball, his senior year while he had just lead Detroit Central to an undefeated regular season, and #1 in the state for class A. That dude was a legit man among boys in high school. I literally grabbed his bicep and pulled as hard as I could to stock him from dunking. He just finger rolled it in, made the free throw and chuckled at my feeble attempt to stop him. Ryan Mack in soccer was an all American caliber player until he blew out his knee, but yea, Aliosius was also ridiculous.

Joined: 03/20/2015

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stephenrjking

May 14th, 2016 at 11:38 PM ^

I didn't play high school sports, so I wouldn't be able to rate much here. But my senior year was the first season of the NTDP program and I wound up in a team sports class (gym where we just played games) with Joey Goodenow, son of NHLPA leader Bob Goodenow and future Spartan hockey grinder.

He was never a top prospect hockey player and of course we were playing games that he wasn't good at. So, the first games we played were football and football-like hodgepodge games and he got picked in the middle of the pack when dividing teams.

Then people saw him play, and he was never picked later than second ever again. It was eye-opening--people who train to be athletes are just incredibly athletic, even if they aren't especially gifted at their particular sport. He was fast, strong, and agile, and just dusted everybody in sports where that mattered. 

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ken725

May 14th, 2016 at 11:39 PM ^

Aaron Piersol in a relay. He swam the backstroke which is the lead in the medly relay. The race was over before it even began.

Joined: 10/26/2008

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We are back

May 14th, 2016 at 11:44 PM ^

01 Farmington hills Harrison Drew Stanton was a beast in football and baseball killed us in both, they also had a back Woods who went to Mizzou and a WR who went to state but got kicked out he had a Muslim name can't remember but Stanton was the best



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bluesalt

May 14th, 2016 at 11:44 PM ^

She was apparently in my youth soccer league when I was like 6. I have no idea if she was actually good at soccer at that point (but she probably was the kid with the ball everyone was chasing). But no organized sports for me after the age of 12, sadly, so Abby Wambach it will have to be.

Joined: 11/02/2011

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M Fanfare

May 14th, 2016 at 11:47 PM ^

A guy I worked with played high school football in Virginia against a team that had Sean Glennon at QB (started for a few years at VT), Evan Royster at RB (3-year starter for Penn State), and Eddie Royal at WR (played for the Broncos, Chargers, and currently with the Bears).

He said it did not go well for his team.

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name redacted

May 14th, 2016 at 11:47 PM ^

Charles Rogers. Only guy to dunk on me in hoops (SAG Valley St basketball camp). It was brutal, from where he took off I assume a finger roll or some type of layup, teardrop.. I went up with him thinking I could alter the 'shot'. Nope threw it down with me underneath. Then next year in HS football.. their entire offense consisted of throwing it as high and as far as possible and letting Charles jump over our 5'6 and 5'8 DBs.



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Larry Appleton

May 14th, 2016 at 11:48 PM ^

Drew Henson in football.

It was only a pre-season scrimmage. He was a senior, I a junior defensive end. He ran a naked bootleg to my side, and my eyes lit up. Here was my chance to tackle the best athlete in the country!

Next thing I know is he's 30 yards downfield dancing in the endzone and I'm picking myself up off the grass. I never laid a finger on him.



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Wolverine In Iowa

May 14th, 2016 at 11:48 PM ^

U-M swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, world record-holder (200 breast).  When I was a young teen "racing" against him, he won the 200 IM by about 15 seconds back in the DC area.

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