I think everyone knows of some high school or college athlete that just did get to the next level of that greatness once held. Maybe even you for some reason just fell short of that potential for the next heights of competitive sport.

I knew, played and competed against what I would consider some of the best athlete in the area and many of those Athletes when on to great college careers, sport history and professional sports.

There is a longer list of “Once Was A Great Athlete” that at the time where just as great if not better but just never reached that next level prominence.

So on this Thread lets give those Athletes that you remember (IYO of greatness) that just did make it for whatever reason.

This could be “Once Was A Great Athlete” their last 10 second of notoriety once again:

I’m putting together my list but to start:

Bruce Fowler …Basketball
Reader LaFlore… Football
Rocko Rich …. Football
Clev Bryant …. Football

If you want to add the high school or college …OK

Played HS football against Matt Calhoun of Heath who played for OSU and came close to the NFL.

Heard you played "Left Out" Belly...and it was Chica LaFlore who told me so.

Maurice Clarrett.

Matt Hull

Mike D'Andrea

Brian Bozworth

I guess there was a kid that played at Toledo Scott that was the best basketball player ever back in the 1980s-ish. Like people who watched him and Jordan said he was better. Sooooo, I'll add him to the list since I heard he simply became a druggie.

played against a bunch of guys in both football and baseball who are currently having and went on to successful collegiate careers, a few of them on the cusp of professional levels as well

^^^^

that made me spit out my pop LOL

sjmvsfscs08 wrote: I guess there was a kid that played at Toledo Scott that was the best basketball player ever back in the 1980s-ish. Like people who watched him and Jordan said he was better. Sooooo, I'll add him to the list since I heard he simply became a druggie.

Chris Poellnitz ?

Esteban Weaver, he was the Lebron of HS basketball before Lebron. I think he finished up HS around the early to mid 1990's or so, but there were articles written about him published on the national level.

But he was a junkie and is now just a myth.

The Dispatch actually ran an article about him about a year ago, but I couldn't find it.

Louis Willard, Grove City. Health and head problems kept him from performing at the next level. Night and day better than Derek Combs who followed him at GCHS and played decently for tOSU and had a small cup of coffee in the pros.

Most from the Warren/Youngstown area know of the legend of Omar Provitt....

ernest_t_bass wrote: Matt Hull

+1

esteban weaver from hartley and independance...he didnt become a junkie though, just a guy without the discipine needed to stay on the right path...he was a future pro for sure, recently played for the columbus cyclones and led the team in scoring
eli brewster from wherle...played at osu in hoops, also a good pitcher from what i hear, just a phenomenal athlete.....never did much at osu though

ccrunner609 wrote: Curtis Enis............played for D6 Missisiniwa Valley, went to Penn State, went to NY for the Heisman, then didnt play one season in the NFL?

Enis had a brief NFL career, but never did much before retiring. According to Wiki, he retired young due to a degenerative knee condition.

Played against Scott Moviel who will possibly someday pitch for the Mets.

I may have mentioned on here before, but I was a military brat growing up. I played high sports in Arkansas. The greatest athlete I ever played against was a RB from Pine Bluff named Basil Shabazz. Most people from Arkansas consider him the greatest athlete they have ever seen. I have attached a link from an article from Torii Hunter who opined the same. Shabazz did it all, played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. Most agreed he was best at football, but he signed on with the St. Louis Cardinals instead of going to college and playing football. He eventually was injured playing minor league b-ball and never made it to the big time. Here are some crazy stats I found in this article:

He ran for 5 TD's in the state final agaisnt Texarkana in 1990
He set the state record for the 200m dash at 20.8 seconds
He high jumped 6 feet 9 inches
A 24'3 long jump
He was First team All-State in basketball
He was a USA Today Football All-American in 1990

I remember that dude running for like 350 yards and a couple TD's against my team during the regular season. We were no slouch, we finished with only 2 losses that year and lost in the first round of the playoffrs.




http://a.espncdn.com/mlb/columns/schwarz_alan/1396641.html

Hiawatha Francisco

krazie45 wrote: Most from the Warren/Youngstown area know of the legend of Omar Provitt....

Omar ran like a deer. Unfortunately, Trumbull County Sheriffs got too see him run more than Harding fans.

Melvin Levitt

Terry White from Cambridge

Played some hoops against Omar at the Y once. Sad to say...he caught an alley oop over me. Dude had crazy hops!

lhslep134 wrote: Played against Scott Moviel who will possibly someday pitch for the Mets.

Struck out against his older brother Greg Moviel who was nasty. Also struck out against Chad Billingsley...I about pissed myself both times against those 2. Filthy stuff.