Who's the best HS athlete you've seen in person?

big10fan

Well-Known Member
Was thinking of this today at work. Now, being from NW Iowa I haven't seen a lot of D1 athletes, but I saw BW in HS and the game he had against Harlan (#2 in state at the time) was the best performance I've ever seen live by a HS athlete. He ran for over 300 yards, returned kicks, kicked the extra points and played some mean defense in a blowout victory.

What do you guys have? I've heard some stories about Timmy D, but never saw him in HS.
 
Ok this is not Football but it is Baseball. I have seen B.J. Hermsen in action. He is from my town. He is a Starting pitcher. He got drafted by the Twins then he signed a contact with them and he is in the Minors right now,
 
B.J. Hermsen also played Football so he is the best I have ever seen in real life too he had schloships in football too but he is too good at baseball.
 
If you just want to talk about "pure" athlete - Adam Haluska! Hands down, and I've seen a lot of them.
 
IIRC wasn't Haluska a standout track athlete as well? I'm sure it was him that won state in the 200 and maybe the 100 as well.
 
Curtis Craig, Jamie Williams, Roger Craig, Tavian Banks, Tim Dwight.

Curtis was dominant, completely. And Roger was too, though different, and not as much as Curtis. Tavian was unreal quick, and Dwight was Dwight. Curtis was tops.
 
Jess Settles at Winfield Mt. Union. I saw him in a Sub-state basketball game, he dunked on our high school team twice and once over my 5'7" PF brother, I don't let him forget. He says: "Settles wasn't my guy" LOL.
I was in awe watching him play and the thing is, they knew they were going to win and were in cruise control.
 
While not in the same vain as Tavian or Timmy D but back in 79 a friend Tim Hanna played for my home town. We were a 3A school one level down from the big schools. I was a few years older and my class had an undefeated football team with some pretty good football players who ended up playing small college ball. Tim however played on a bad team a few years later but he was the most dominant player I had ever see in high school up until that time. He was a beast at defensive tackle. Took 3 guys to stop him on defense and I saw him wipe out multiple guys at offensive tackle. We wasn't recruited by anyone until the shrine game and by the end of the week he had scholarshiips to almost every major school around the state of Iowa. He ended up starting for 2 years on the offensive line for the Hawks and played in the 82 Peach and 83 Gator bowl alongside John Alt and Joel Hilgenberg. That is the first time I think I understood what it takes to be a D1 player. He was in a class by himself. We had 2 more guys play from my hometown, Jon Vrieze who started for 4 years for the Hawks and Larry Johnson, all good solid players in the 80's.
 
Treye Jackson from Newton. He was an absolute beast not only at rb but also as a db. He was so fast plus he could run you over.
 
Tim Dwight, Track or Football...take your pick - he was truly spectacular in both.

I have never seen anyone dominate a football game the way Dwight used to - I know he did some pretty impressive things at the college level, but at the HS level where his diminutive size wasn't nearly as much of a limiter, there was simply no one that could touch him (which I mean mostly figuratively, but in some cases quite literally).

In track, he was just plain fast and really seemed to like to win. Not much more you can say there. Just lined up and flew.
 
Jaron Rush. It was like a 21 year old among teens..when he was as senior in HS for Pembroke Hill in KC...just a freak of nature. Still can't believe of all the Rush brothers, he had the least success in the league.

I played HS FB against John Oostepdorp from West Liberty. He scared me. Literally. And who can forget Bill Lovetinsky.
 
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