So I work installing Cox Cable out in HRD. Predominantly right at the oceanfront.
Today I had a call at Levonta Taylors house (top CB currently committed to FSU). It was pretty cool when I realized where I was.
So my question is have you ever met a recruit for VT or high profile player outside of Blacksburg. Example at a restaurant, at their house, etc. What was the story behind the encounter? I am looking more for surprise meetings.
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Mirrors all over my house, so yeah.
Closest for me is Wyatt Teller. His god mother is my aunt, so I have known and been around him for a long time.
I met Da'Shawn Hand at bar in Auburn Alabama while he was visiting his junior year of high school (he was #1 in the country at the time). I was there for my cousin's graduation. I went up to him shook his hand and just said "Hokie Nation". He just kind rolled his eyes at me. I should have known he wasn't Blacksburg bound at that point, but of course I kept my hopes up until he eliminated us.
Inside you probably felt what your profile picture portrays. I know I would have.
Edit _ nevermind
I'm the same age and went through grade school with Marquise Williams (current UNC QB and former high-profile recruit) in Shelby, NC, which is his hometown. I guess I kinda knew him before he became a big-time recruit, even though he was always the biggest kid and best athlete and we knew he was going to be something special. He moved to Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte before highschool. He's an awesome guy, and obviously not too shabby on the football field either.
Shelby?!?! That's home to another big time athlete!
No but I patted Kyle Fuller on the back at TOTS a week before he got drafted. So I've got that going for me.
I haven't been back enough to confirm but Ive heard Brewer has taken to TOTS like no Hokie QB since Druckenmiller.
Patrick Dosh and Matt Estes went to High School with them and played on two time state champions football team with them,
Wasn't necessarily the biggest recruit coming out of highschool, but I had a class with current bengals WR Mohamed Sanu my sophomore year (HS) before he early enrolled at Rutgers back in 2009.
Jealous. I have heard good things about him. Though to be honest my hero growing up was Brian Leonard. My brother is soon to be an alumni of Rutgers and went to some event recently where a bunch of former players were there including Leonard. My brother said he was really nice and that he brought me and my man crush up to Leonard. Leonard said hi and I sort of melted.
I have a girlfriend, I swear.
Yeah, I got really into college football back around 05-06 when Rice and Leonard helped put Rutgers on the map. Good times.
Also, not 100% but I believe my aunt teaches at the highschool Leonard went to, kinda cool I guess.
I had a #sources "family friend" of Chris Cunningham ask me about VT when he found out I'm a Hokie. Told him everything I've heard is that if CFB & Co. tell a recruit something, it's the truth. Seems to have worked in our favor even though I didn't have my coupon book on me that day.
I went to school and knew Damien Woody and Erron Kinney, both of whom were highly recruited and had long NFL careers. Also, been friends with the Legendary VT Strength Coach Keith Short since pre-teen years.
Keith Short is the man. Love that guy
Go Patriots hahaha always interesting to find other people that went to school around here.
Met Kendall fuller! lived in Cochrane so I met a lot of athletes from a lot of sports. It was kinda cool
I have dick for this question!
Ran into Jalen Dalton at one of the football games last year. Told him to commit to Tech, and that it would be one of the best decisions he ever made... his exact word were "I will fam" and then walked away.
.....Looks like that worked out well
apparently you ain't fam
So vtadrian what was your interaction with the family like?
I dont know if his mom was tired of the process and somewhat disinterested to talk or if she doesnt realize just how good he could end up being.... or maybe she really just wanted me to fix her internet.
I was "lucky" enough to play against Wyatt Teller in my last high school game ever. I was the small white kid who was longsnapping for punts...Wyatt was the big, top 250 recruit in the country who was responsible for hitting said white kid. Not a good combo. I also got to play against Michael Holmes twice in high school. Although we saw how that worked out, he was actually incredibly gifted in high school, especially when he had Landon Turner (UNC lineman) blocking for him.
Holmes scored like 6 or7 TDs against my old high school. He was a huge deal around here and I was pumped when he committed to Tech. Yeeeaahhhh. . . .
We pretty much shut him down, but there was a game where he scored 8 touchdowns in the first half against Lee High...and he didn't play the second half.
Didn't he break the state rushing record that same game or was he just short? I remember my dad talking about him a lot when he was a senior. Dad was also an HHS alum, and I went to school in Staunton.
I was dunked on by Greg Olsen in high school. He was on a different level athletically
I played at Cave Spring in the late 90's. My grandfather was best buds with Lee Suggs granddaddy. Naturally, we played against each other in HS. I was the grossly undersized outside backer whose entire existence while playing William Fleming High was to eat the lead blocker...or, shall I say, serve myself up on a platter for the 5'6" 250 lb bowling ball that kicked out each series Lee touched the ball on an off-tackle counter. Needless to say, I think I may have gotten a piece of his shoestrings that year (98, his senior season), while completing the game feeling like death warmed over. He was incredible in HS, and while playing him, we learned as a team just how important gap-filling and back-side pursuit was. He scored the game winner with 45 seconds to go...while amassing 245 of his team's 300total yards--on the ground(game was played in a driving rain). As a person, I knew him to be quiet, soft spoken, didn't talk much on the field--just let his play do the talking. My grandfather spoke very highly of his granddaddy, a stand-up, salt of the earth family. I was happy to root for him as a student a few years later!
My senior year at PH (Roanoke) was '98. I recovered a Suggs fumble that we turned around and scored the touchdown that ended up being the difference in the game.
He graduated a year before I was in high school, but my brother had classes with Macho Harris. I had a Spanish class with Cris Hill, and Derrick Hopkins (not "highly rated" but still a cool guy) would eat lunch with my group of friends every once in a while.
I went to a small Christian school in Richmond, and Blessed Sacrament-Hugenot is in our conference. My junior year was Augie Conte's senior year, and I guess they needed all the bodies they could find for basketball because that man may be a lot of things, but a hooper he is not. I specifically remember him missing a couple layups and bricking multiple free throws. I don't think he scored a point, but I didn't care cause I knew who he was before we played them and was amazed how much bigger he was than everyone else in the gym. Dude was built like the Hulk in high school, especially compared to a twig like me. I remember feeling pretty special giving him a handshake after the game and a bro-slap on the back.
Also my freshman year of high school we played Benedictine's JV team when Jalen Hudson was still in RVA. Yeah, different story than Conte. He was by far the best player, and I specifically remember looking up and seeing the bottom of his soles before I even noticed he blew past me. Not to mention, he was only in 8th grade at the time. It's no wonder he was recruited to the school where LeBron played.
Finally, I know he's at UNC but I went to the same church for years as Tyler Powell. I know he was getting looked at by VT, but I don't think we ever officially offered him (could be wrong here). He went from like 6'0, 160 to 6'2, 225 in what seemed like a blink of an eye. He's a big dude.
Just to validate you, you're right about Powell. No offer from either in-state school.
I went to high school with Jimmy Butler. Awesome dude.
Buzz would concur.
That guy is the future. Love watching him play
I grew up with Jake Grove and Anthony Poindexter. My mom was the office assistant at the high school when we were little. They were always getting excuse notes from her to go to class late. When we had to wait on her to finish they liked to mess with me and my brother when we were younger and got to hang out with them before practice. I played with Rashaad Jennings before he transferred school and still catch up with him if I run into him when he is back in town.
My brother had an AAU tournament at Cave Spring one year and we got there early. We walked in the gym and there was a guy shooting free throws shots from half court with two racks of balls on each side of him. He was making one after another with no problem. Come to find out it was JJ Reddick and we got to watch him practice for like 15 minutes. Never going to forget how far away he was shooting from flat footed!
I once met Jake from State Farm back when he was Allstate...
I was a freshman in high school when Blake DeChristopher was a Senior at Clover Hill. He was easily the biggest person in the school, granted I was a tiny 5'4" kid back then. He didn't have a beard back then. It's really weird picturing that. As a senior I would pass Joel Caleb in the hallway on occasion when he was a sophomore. By then I had grown and he didn't seem huge, though he was only 16 and carrying our football team.
Went to same high school as Sean Glennon and Eddie Royal. I was a year older than them but think I might have had one class with Glennon my junior year. He lived on the same street as me and I always knew when we was driving by because his accord had a loud ass exhaust on it. Not mention an obnoxiously large spoiler on it. It was the same car he had a tech.
Don't really remember anything about Royal, but I only went to 1 or 2 HS games as I was always working Friday nights.
Why is that not surprising at all?
Worked at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the U.S. Army All-American combine this year in San Antonio. As a solider, I was kinda doing liaison work, telling the participants what its like to be in the army and what it means to me...etc. Pretty cool down to earth kids, and fun watching them compete at the combine
Personally, Antone Exum lived in my neighborhood growing up, so thats pretty neat.
Wyndham?
Yep near shady grove elementary. Good old Glen allen
I went to a small Catholic school in central NJ. While there we had former highly rated recruit Theo Riddick (played for Notre Dame, now on the Detroit Lions) in the class behind mine. He was in the same journalism class as I was and we were both close to our teacher. She had asked me to help him a few times on various academic things, such as the SAT.
He was a honestly a great guy. His girlfriend or whatever they call each other was in my grade, our class and she and I actually both went to Tech. He came down to visit her in Blacksburg one time and we all ran into each other at Big Al's. He is really a great guy and one of my favorite players of all time.
On a side note perhaps I should be collecting royalties from Notre Dame.
Man the Catholic School game in NJ is nothing to mess with. I went one of the few public schools in NJ to have a sailing team, it was us, the Toms River schools, and then 8 of the Catholic schools as a conference.
Met Angela Tincher in 2008 she signed autographs at James River high school in Buchanan before a football game.Talked to Kendall Fuller after the spring game he said he is ready to shutdown the Ohio State wide receivers.
Sat next to Angela at the Jiffy Lube (or whatever it is now) across from the 7/11 on N. Main once while waiting for an oil change. I'd walked down to Carol Lee's and picked up a half doz assorted and offered them, as was my habit, to those waiting with me. She declined with a smile and a shake of her head, not a word did she speak. I was struck by how attractive she was in person, having only seen her on TV before that. She looked like an athlete, too, ya know?
Yes, and she asked me for my autograph....
My dad played basketball against Obama in Hawaii when he was at Punahou.
He was apparently quite the point guard.
Don't sleep on Barry O now
Don't EVER sleep on Barry O..
That comin' to me? INTERCEPTED
I grew up with Russell Wilson...he was only a two-star coming out of high school so I guess that doesn't fit what you're looking for. He did tell me VT was going to offer him if Tyrod didn't commit and he was immediately going to accept if they did (what could have been)
I met and talked to Kendall Fuller for a good 15 minutes before the VT/Cinny game in DC. He seemed pretty chill, I think he already made the decision to come to VT. He asked me what the best thing thing to get at West End and I immediately responded with the Rib Eye Sandwich at JPs.
Even given hindsight, would we have preferred Wilson to Tyrod in college? He's obviously had a far better pro career but I think Tyrod was better for VT, given the lack of offensive system and requirement to improvise.
My claim to fame is that I saw Russel Wilson play baseball live when I was living in Asheville. He played for the Asheville Tourist's, which is the farm team for the Colorado Rockies before he was drafted to the Seahawks.
No way would Wilson have been better for VT.
Wilson was ACC player of the year his freshman year, yeah I would have taken him over Tyord
Uh, so what? Tyrod won it in 2010 and arguably outplayed Wilson in both 2009 and 2010. Wilson was a bigger part of NC State's offense, but Tyrod has a very good argument for better ACC QB.
1) Wilson won it as a freshman, Tyrod won it as a senior.
2) VT had a significantly better running game and receivers than NC State at the time. Not to mention a vastly better defense and special teams...Tyrod spent more time playing with a lead than Wilson did. Wilson had to force a lot of throws because he team was always behind. Just look at the difference between Logan Thomas in 2011 vs. 2012 if you don't think that's important.
3) Look at Wilson's numbers at Wisconsin. They are significantly better to Tyrod as a senior.
Wilson 2011: 33 TD/4 INT, 3,175 yards, 72.8% completion percentage, 338 rushing yards, 6 rushing TDs
Taylor 2010: 24 TD/5 INTs, 2,743 yards, 59.7% completion percentage, 403 rushing yards, 5 rushing TDs
Maybe it's time for you take off the hokie-colored glasses.
The problem you're making is that it's hard to make comparisons. Wilson went to a pass happy offensive system, facing defenses that arguably allow for a QB like him to succeed, and also with a system in place that obviously allowed him to develop into a better QB.
I don't see him entering the VT program at that time and succeeding the same way he did in Wisconsin. We've already learned from his departure, and Logan Thomas saying so, that the QB Coach wasn't really able to develop QBs that well, and just went with what they were already doing.
I'm a little confused. Are you saying that NC State was pass happy? or Wisconsin?
I thought Wisconsin was more of a run first man-ball type of offense. I don't remember NC State's offense well enough from his time there to know whether or not it was pass happy. I do know that he played under Tom O'Brien who has been billed as somewhat of a QB guru I think.
every QB at lolUVA is an argument against that premise.
haha..touche
Maybe Pass-Happy is too strong of a word, but they totaled around 5900 yards of offense, 3300 of which were pass yards by Wilson. That year, they lost to the opponents that had any semblance of a decent defense (save the conference championship where they beat Michigan St) and the games they lost were essentially shoot-outs with similar minded teams. They also had Montee Ball, who had almost 2000 yards rushing.
They lost to Ohio State, and Michigan State during the regular season, beat Michigan State in the Championship game, and lost to Oregon in their bowl game.
I'm just thinking, if Russell comes to Tech, and Tyrod goes elsewhere, we don't do as well as we did with Tyrod. Russell developed, Tyrod was already just great.
thanks for clarifying. I don't have a dog in this fight, I just wasn't sure which team you were referring to as pass-happy. I remembered Wisconsin more as a running team, though I am aware that Wilson played really well in the system and his season there is ultimately what got him drafted.
And holy cow!! almost 2000 yards rushing? That's outrageous
Tyrod developed, but most of his development came from work outside of VT. (Can't remember if it was his Dad, his HS Coach, Both, or someone else that he was working with) Early in his career he was much quicker to pull the ball down and run, but later on he used his speed and agility to buy time and kept his eyes down the field looking for open receivers rather than looking for an open rushing lane as soon as the play started to break down.
Tyrod's Dad fixed his "hitch" one Summer, something our paid QB coach was unable to do.
Wisconsin's offense was very similar to what VT did in their heyday: strong offense line, establish the run first and then pass off of play action
1. Again, so what? He then proceeded not to win it for the next two years. You don't get a special trophy for winning as a freshman. You don't get one and a half trophies. They have the same number of ACC player of the year awards. Period. I didn't even say that Tyrod was definitely better, or even better at all, I merely questioned using winning ACC POY as a freshman as a metric for Wilson's superiority.
2. VT had better receivers? I love Coale and Boykin, because they were great college receivers... But Owen Spencer, Jarvis Williams, and all-acc TE George Bryan were great college receivers in their own right. It's not like NC State was completely devoid of talent at RB either, as they had Andre Brown (an NFL back) and Toney Baker (an elite recruit who was excellent when healthy). The offensive lines were similarly terrible... Also, I already stated that Wilson was a bigger part of NC State's offense, and he certainly did an excellent job handling that, but he was also taught to throw the ball away when in doubt so he didn't really force the ball as much as you claim. Furthermore, pointing out his supposed lack of talent at NC State and then not his dominating running game and that offense at Wisconsin is a bit disingenuous.
3. My argument was that, during their time together in the ACC from 2008-2010 (they came out of HS the same year), Tyrod has a very good argument for being the best QB in the league. Considering Tyrod led the conference in QB rating for 2009 and 2010, that is hardly farfetched.
I played against Derrick Green and Antone Exum. Needless to say that didn't end well a few times.
Played against James Whitley and Brandon Inge
I sat next to Alex Flannigan on a plane once on the day after the Superbowl in Dallas (can't remember which one that was). She is a very tall lady, I am 6'2 and I had to look up to her. She was not a very good conversationalist which is surprising for a sideline reporter...
I played against Clarence Goodson in high school soccer and club soccer. Not sure how highly rated he was coming out of Woodson/Braddock Road Youth Club but he made it to the national team for the South Africa World Cup.
And no, I've never met California Chrome or Barbaro.
Forgot this one... I met Michael Robinson a couple times while he was being recruited. He lived on the same street as a friend and I met him at a neighborhood cookout. He loved Coach Cav. Alas, his mom loved Paterno more and she had final say in his recruitment.
I met Tim Duncan when I was 9, broke my neck looking up so high.
Not sure if he counts as a high-profile recruit, but since he's one of the best OT in the NFL I think it counts... I went to high school with Duane Brown and he was actually in marching band as well. He obviously didn't perform with the band during games, but he was at a couple competitions with the rest of us and it was always hilarious to see him holding an alto sax. He made it look so tiny in his huge hands. Super nice guy too from what I remember, though I didn't have many interactions with him because he was a senior when I was a freshman.
I went to high school with some other former Hokie football players too - Alonzo Tweedy & Ju-Ju Clayton. Tweedy was a year below me in school and we never ran in the same circles, but it was funny that he remembered me at a party once he got to VT. I also like to think I stopped him from getting into a fight at TOTS, but that could just be a hazy recollection and I more or less came in after the initial shoving had occurred...
Also, I graduated high school with Queen Harrison and we had government class together senior year. She was always extremely nice to me and while at VT, I randomly ran into her during the fall 2008 semester (right after she'd been to the Olympics).
Okay, enough name-dropping, I'll see myself out...
Terry Kirby and Chris Slade came to my elementary school as part of the Presidential Fitness Awards ceremony. Too bad the played for the "bad" guys (Tabb and UVA).
Also knew David Macklin when we were little.
Seth Dooley, if he had played more than two years of football in high school may have been a high profile recruit! (Great kid!)
If you say Tabb was one of the bad buys, did you go to Poquoson?
I did not.
My mistake. I was under the impression that Tabb and Poquoson were the only rivals of one another
York and Tabb are natural rivals.
This is what I get for trying to act like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to peninsula schools haha
Macklin was two years ahead of me in high school. I only met him in passing but he blasted my best friend during a football practice. Dude could bring the lumber.
I have no idea what this is but I give it a leg
You don't know who Bert Macklin is??
I sat next to Billy Ray Mitchell and Holland Fisher at the Georgia Tech game last season. Both really great guys. Holland wasn't a big talker but I chatted with Mitchell almost the entire game. He was really interested in hearing what the program was like while I was a student (Tyrod years). He also seemed pretty interested in recruiting and who the visitors were for that game.
Not a recruit story but my last semester of college I lived in the same apartment that Marcus lived in. Yeah, that apartment....that bedroom. Hahaha. Dude got ALOT of shoe catalogs in the mail.
In the same apartment complex I had Xavier Adibi living below me. He came up one night to inform us of the time. We were playing Rock Band and he kindly informed us that it was 1:15am. We stopped immediately.
Anybody remember the drive-by of Macho Harris' apartment? That was the same building. After that I can officially say I've been on the wrong end of some gunfire.
My mom taught Ryan MF Williams in the fifth grade and I am the same age. She came home one day and told us all "I am teaching a future NFL player". Apparently he had a habit of walking the track on his hands at recess. Funnily enough I met him that year at the county science fair, he is a pretty smart guy. I played against him all through our youth and anytime my mom saw him she would say "Go Hokies". When I moved in freshman year he recognized my mom and helped me move in my dorm, pretty cool. Definitely my favorite Hokie and my mom still thinks she is part of the reason he went to play for the good guys.
Played against Ru in high school before stonewall became a 4/5 star pipeline
ACowne63...
You MUST have the answer to a question that has been killing me for years:
Did RW play Pop Warner, Junior Midget level on a Woodbridge team, 2003 range?
I was "associated" with the Virginia Beach Mustangs in the early 2000's and we ran into a kid, #34, and I swear his name was Williams, that just tore us up in the playoffs. A few years later, I started wondering if it was RW, and never have been able to find out.
The Mustangs have a long list of bigtime D-1 players (Harvin and Boyd top the list of the ones that I knew) so it was a bit unusual to run into a kid that left the type of impression
that this kid did. I just love the way RW runs...just an amazing back, IMO.
Sorry, but I am not sure. I knew him going into Middle school so I played against him at Stonewall Middle and then High. I don't know if he dabbled in Pop Warner. If he did I think he would have played on the Manassas team.
I played on Stonewall Middle's soccer team for three years.
Not that that has anything to do with anything.
You were just a pony then.
That was approximately the quality of the field, too. Nice pull
RIP Lil Sebastian....
Didn't Ru grow up in NY?
I bet you played against this kid: http://sports.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-De...
He was nicknamed "Rocket" in High School. Saw him play as a freshman in HS and he was really impressive.
He was born and lived his early years in NY. But moved to Va sometime in his elementary years.
Rocket was great in high school. Played against him when he was at woodbridge. He committed to Rutgers and then ended up transferring to IUP.
Could very well be him, slicktrip. Thanks for the link.
The mystery for me continues...
Yeah, nice try, NCAA
But in all seriousness, I met Macho Harris back when he stomped my high school. When he committed to the Hokies, I knew he was going to be a great one for them.
What highschool?
he had 495 all purpose yards when we played him (Lee-Davis).
Freeman
Not sports related but for you music geeks and historians, my most favorite encounter was just last week when I met Richard Boyce. So who is Richard Boyce?
Last Fri night, our band opened for a fundraiser in Jax Beach, and about 30 minutes after we finished, a local dance band came on. They were playing through our gear so I went to help set up my amp/cab for their bass player. He introduced himself as Richard...super nice guy...late 60's at least...maybe 5'7" and a buck 35. He said his wife usually helps him set up but he didn't know where she wandered off to.
So I got him plugged in and asked if he had a tuner or needed one and he chuckled politely and said, "No, I'm OLD school". He then picked up his bass and it was as if it levitated in his hands. His fingers barely moved and notes just came flowing out like a waterfall...and I'm thinking "holy crap, this guy is amazing!" I go tell our sound guy this bass player is really good and says, "Oh, I've seen him before, he's played with some big names".
So when I got home I looked him up. Richard Boyce was the original bass player for George Clinton pre-Parliament/Funkadelic in the early 1960's and one of the first handful of bassists to play funk music. Later he was the bassist for The Manhattans. And he is still outstanding...when they finished, my amp was smiling and smoking a cigarette. Richard is also as humble as he is talented; treated me, a hobbyist at best, as a peer. And his wife is even nicer, chatted with her while they played.
Here is a very cool article about him from several years ago http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/112400/ent_4682740.html#.VTuMV... and a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nBxla9Rzdk
I met Dizzy Dean and Leo Durocher, not sure they were recruits though. :-)
Not VT or football related but I grew up with and played basketball with David Weaver who played at Wake during the Prosser-Gaudio years. Don't think he was a super high profile recruit but he sure was fun to play with once he got to HS. He was about 6'10-6'11 and would just dominate everyone, pretty awesome throwing alley-oops from beyond half court, barely even had to get it close and he would grab it and throw down. He never quite developed at WF the way he could have in my opinion, I think if Prosser hadn't passed he could've been really good. He's having a solid career in Europe now.
Not a VT player but I went to middle school and stayed close friends with Michael Brewster who was a Center at Ohio State. Kid now played for the Jags and now is in New Orleans. Growing up "Big Mike" was always the tallest and biggest kid, excelled at every sport and was basically the Michael Oher of our school.. minus the sad parts.
I definitely gave him a hard time when VT beat his OSU and even made him wear a VT collard shirt the next time we went golfing in Florida... he got a lot of comments Go Hokies ect ect which made it even better!
I met Alonzo Mourning at a Governors dinner when he was a high school Jr. I was there for chess and he was there for a basketball.
I don't know... your story doesn't add up.
Met Tyrod briefly before he started playing, but my most memorable big timer turned out to be a "neighbor" when Mike Williams bought property up the Wabash from me. Mike was a hell of a pitcher for Giles, then VT, then the Phillies. Super nice, humble dude, perfect neighbor, never failed to take the time for a conversation, either in the hollow or at WalMart.
A couple of months ago I saw CJ Reavis at Sakura in C-burg. Didn't have the
guts to approach him...I thought nah I'll just let him enjoy his dinner with his
friends like a normal person....DAMN my shyness!
Not a hokie, but I went to high school with Spencer Ware who was a running back for LSU. He was cut from the Seahawks after a DUI and now plays for the Chiefs. He was always cutting class, getting in trouble and even *cough cough* allegedly hooked up with the biology teacher.
My brother went to high school with David Terrell, who went to Michigan and was a top ten draft pick. He said the dude was like a god in high school, and could do anything he wanted and no one cared.
I went to Maggie Walker Governor's School for high school and one of my friends got taken out to dinner by a couple of ivy league schools, for academics. He also played on the soccer team with me, and we played against Adam Cristman, who was a top recruit, Parade All-American and U-21 national team member. He went on to play at UVA (boo) and eventually on the LA Galaxy with David Beckham and Landon Donovan, and even got into the MLS cup final game, which they won.
Terrell is hands-down the biggest jerk I have ever seen on a high school football field.
While I never met him, I got the impression that he was the type of guy who would try to sleep with everyone's girlfriend and knew they couldn't do anything about it because of who he was.
I'll take your word for it because I just googled his name and literally over half the results are arrests for domestic battery.
He played at Patrick Henry in a playoff game. On the first offensive snap for Huguenot, he came off the line, grabbed the defensive back's facemask and pulled him to the ground. I was shocked he wasn't ejected. His ass-hatness continued for the entire game.
My mom taught Adam at Godwin! I know he went to UVA, but he's a great human being. A really stand up guy, a humble person, and a hard worker. He's since retired from concussions. My family went to dinner with him and his wife (they've been together since high school) when he was playing with the New England Revolution. They made it a point to get my brother and I jerseys; we were in middle school at the time.
Yes I agree, he was always a great guy off the field when he wasn't scoring multiple goals on us. I knew that he was now retired, but I wasn't sure if it was injuries or the extremely low salaries of MLS players unless you are a superstar.
My dad coached at the Strikers, the club at which Cristman played. I used to help him out with his practices when I was 19 or 20, these were U9 or U10 kids, pretty much the youngest that they play travel. Anyway, Cristman was training on the other half of the field that we practiced on, this was in the late spring after UVA would have let out but the kids were still playing. I went over and asked him if he would scrimmage with the little kids, and he didn't take a second to say that he would love to. It made those kids season to get to play a game with one of the guys who had his picture and name on the ad-board around the stadium field there at striker park. He certainly didn't need to take time out of his training to come play with these 9 year old kids, but he did and seemed to have fun.
Like you said, he is a stand up guy.
I played basketball against Chris Clarke last year for my highschool.... INSANE athleticism.
Delete
I met Tyrod and Macho one night my freshman year (Tyrod's soph and Macho's senior) while I was inebriated at 7/11 close to campus. Tyrod was friendly and Macho not so much.
I met Tyrod again at Sharkey's one night my senior year (while he had just spent his first year with the Ravens). He was wearing a Yankees hat and I said something along the lines of "Hey did you see they won tonight?" He replied that he just liked the hat. My attempt to become best friends with TT had failed.
Outside of football, I played baseball at what used to be one of the top high school programs in the state of NJ. I played with and against a lot of kids who have been drafted to various ball clubs. While it's baseball and most of them either are still in the minors or not playing any more, two that I played against (and by played against I mean I rode the bench as my teammates played against) were Mike Trout and Rick Porcello.
I have be better memory of Porcello because he was the only thing anyone could talk about all year. We played his team in the state championship (maybe the semi finals I can't remember). He played first most of the game but came in for the final inning or two and just mowed through our line up.
I still play xbox with john graves. Super cool guy.
I played against Randall. Fortunately I only had to worry about the pitch man as Randall made us look stupid in that game. I have no idea about recruiting or how it works for Olympic sports, but I was just on the plane with the entire US Women's Boxing team and chatted up one of them for the 25 minute flight to Denver 2 weeks ago as they were prepping for a bout with China. Flying into and out of COS is really fun in that sense, you never know who is on the plane with you.
Marcus Vick came in to a place I was working at back when he was a senior in high school to hit on a co-worker. He a) didn't seem like the brightest light bulb and b) was 5'10 at best.
I played high school football with UConn's Dan Orlovsky. He wasn't a "high profile" recruit, but him signing with UConn was a very big deal at the time. He had an offer to Purdue (when that was actually a big deal) if I remember correctly. I've lost touch with him over the years, but he's made a great living as a backup NFL QB when not running out of the back of the end zone.
I used to see Matt Arkema lifting at the Midlothian Y a lot over last summer. Dude has lost mad weight and is built a lot more like a James Gayle type now compared to the 300+ OL that he was at VT. Super friendly guy too and definitely doesn't carry that annoying swagger like he's stronger than 99% of the people who have ever walked through those doors.
I met Vinny Mihota after the William & Mary game last year. He's fucking huge. And I used to see Sean Glennon a lot at Hokie House my freshman year, not that that really counts.
I've met most of the offensive line recruits to have come through here over the past 3 years. There's a particular fraternity our big guys like to bring them to more times than not
Umm, I hope you've met all of them, Beamer.
Leo doing his best Nicholson impression?
pretty solid, actually. I think Leonardo Dicaprio is really underrated. Probably one of the best actors to never win an Oscar.
I was supposed to be Boye Aromire's RA when he came to Tech but he changed rooms before move-in. I also went to high school with former VT DT Cordarrow Thompson. And I worked with Orion Martin's wife while he was a GA at Tech and got to know him pretty well too.
This wasn't outside of VT, but I had football camp as a freshman in High School with DeAngelo Hall. He was a junior and just committed to VT.
better question, have they ever met me?
I remember TJ Washington (now Todd) came to read to my 3rd grade class. I probably met some other players as a blacksburg kid, but TJ was my favorite!
edit: I just remembered that I also met Martin Scales on the drillfield a couple years ago. Super nice dude.
Not VT, but my cousin is currently the backup QB at Florida State heading into next season, competing with Maguire for the starting job over the summer. JJ Cosentino out of Central Catholic in Pittsburgh. He knew Shai McKenzie fairly well just from being from the same area, and was at most of the same camps as Andrew Ford since they were in the same class and both from PA.
I'm still not sure how I'm going to reconcile rooting for FSU over the next few seasons, but at least he can hook me up with free tickets at Doak whenever I decide to make the trip.
"High profile recruit " does the cutie I met the weekend of freshman summer orientation count?
Coached against Mook's team (in the same conference). Last year, after the game was over and we were shaking hands, I walked up to Mook and said, "Bring a national championship to Blacksburg." He smiled big and said, "I will."
I have personally had my ass whipped in an arm-wrestling match by Jake Grove.
Also met a lot of players and former players working downtown. Bruce Smith, Tyrod, D Hall, Sergio Render and Cody Grimm to name a few.
Met Sergio Render myself, once. He was getting ready to fish in a New River tournament as I was wrapping up a day's float. He pretty much said he'd rather fish than play football. I guess he ultimately got his wish.
Being from Chesapeake I have met quite a few in recent years. My son's favorite so far that he has met on a few occasions is Bucky. I also coached against Dre Bly and Plaxico Burress.
Played high school ball with Alex Carter who will probably get picked pretty soon in the NFL Draft. Great guy and really down to earth.
Got the chance to play against Alex. Great athlete and an ever better person. We beat Briar my sophomore year and lost to them the next year 27-0 which began their run of 3 straight state championships. Trace McSorley absolutely picked us apart. Matt Rolin was also on that team, unfortunately he's been plagued with knee injuries since his arrival at Gainesville.
Ya we had a lot of great players over that run. Cam Serigne had a pretty good year at Wake Forest. Matt looked pretty good in Florida's spring game. He should get a lot of time this year with Florida. There were a few others that could end up pretty good too: Brandon Polk (Penn St), Melvin Holland (Minnesota), and Mark Birmingham (committed to Duke) are all good players too. I tried to get them all to come to VT, clearly I have no future as a recruiter haha. I would've loved for any of those guys to come to Blacksburg.
Played at Western Branch with Vince Hall and got to play against some good talent; Xavier Adibi, Chris Ellis and Branden Ore. So much talent on the teams we played against.
I took a summer class at Tech awhile back - Ex-Hokie Bball player Chek Diakete (spelling?) used to sit with us a lot during lunch and chill. He wasn't a fan of the food since it wasn't close to his native dishes, but he ate it nonetheless I guess.
No, but I did pass Mike Vick in the hallway one year and hung out with D Hall and his wife (I knew her in college) at Big Al's.
Oh I totally forgot, I worked with Michael Crawford's fiancee Vanessa while I was in Blacksburg, met him a time or two. I guess he wasn't a recruit at the time, more like the ultimate survivor by that time
I just bought some area rugs off of Joey Phillip's parents through Craigslist! They weren't sure I'd remember Joey, but I told them that hair is unforgettable.
They're super nice people, even helped me haul the rugs across town and up to my place.
Sorry to bump an old thread but I played against former cowboys (not sure where he is now) TE John Phillips. At TE he would crush the entire defensive line on a down block and at DE he did whatever he wanted. In 1A ball he was incredible. His brother was much smaller but also a very good
QB.