The best player you have ever coached?

"I remember one day in the summer we were running 10 80 sprints. One for each team we play. I challenged the team and begged them to PLEASE beat Savion... Nobody could. Well after the tenth sprint the strength coach (Someone who is on this board) said that was not good enough and we have ten more... Well the kids all {censored} and moan but Savion jumped right up and everyone followed. He ran 10 more full speed and nobody was even close. "

That is the money right there.

Last year I had 2 kids go DI at Ohio with Frank Solich, Jon Lechner and James Davis, both
O-linemen ( what I coach). Not sure how much we helped them but they both played 4-5 years with us and started weights with us etc

The best ones Ive ever coached will be Senior, Soph and 8th graders next year, time will tell. The Senior is the top recruit in the state, has offers from ND, NU etc

Best kid I ever coached is playing D-2,not because of ability but b/c of size. He was a starting free safety and RB. For a while he was our school and county's leading rusher. What I most remember about him was playing a big conference rival, and right before half they intercepted a pass and were trying to run it back. He hit the kid with the ball right on our sideline and hit him so hard he knocked him under the team bench-in the air-which was on the first lane of the track.

Best player I "never" coached. He was on the team, but I didn't coach QBs. This is a great story...I'll keep it brief.

Frosh year this kid is a 5th quarter player. Wouldn't sniff the field because the coaches thought he would get hurt.

Soph year - a little bigger and stronger, but still a liability.

Through both those years he was a leader and kids respected him...even though he wasn't on the field....EVER...in crunch time.

Junior year - was a back up QB, but if the starter got hurt we'd probably have to put a WR in there for fear of him getting hurt. Got some "garbage" snaps and even threw a TD pass. Again, leader by example...other players respect the heck out of him.

Senior year - this is almost a teary eyed story - He is now backing up a JUNIOR who is a far better athlete. This junior though, doesn't do well in big games. In fact, the last two regular season games of the year we monster games for us and he falters in both. Uninspired play and not getting things done. The senior QB can play this year. Faster...a lot faster....surprisingly really fast...with option potential. Well, it so happens that our first playoff opponent happens to be a team that needs to get optioned. Our HC makes the controversial QB switch. A better athlete for a guy who cared more and had come on throughout the season. We go into the lions den facing a 10-0 team that had given up only 61 total points the whole season. Long story short....you guessed it...this kid leads us to victory 21-20. Including marching on one 18 play drive!!!!!! The team rallies around this kid. We go in and blow out the 2nd round opponent. The 3rd round opponent was more formidable and we only threw 3 passes the whole game....but didn't need to throw as we racked up more than 400 rushing yards in the game. So this kid leads up to the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. We happened to be playing a team that had some guy named Willie Tuitama as their QB. He happened to play all 4 years of QB at U of Arizona. Willie also had 6 other D1 players on his team.

In one of the most epic games in school history, Nick Cartan, has his best game ever. Rushing for over 100 yards and 2 scores and throwing for over 200 yards. Though we lost the wild game 50-45 I'll never forget Nick Cartan.

Nick was, by far, no where near, the best athlete I've coached. But his heart and desire over his 4 years of football should be bottled up and preserved. Hell, his dad is an English teacher here. He should write a book about what his son did. It was legendary. From barely playing at all, all 4 years of high school...and then get thrown into the fire for the playoffs? Most kids would buckle. But Nick was ready. It was what he was waiting for his whole life!!!

Best I ever Coached ended up playing QB at OU. The one we have now is going to be the new BEST I think. I don't make my judgment until they play at the next level, that's just my way of measuring them.

This story is what coaching high school athletes is all about.

Kboyd would probably agree with this comment because he played with both of these guys, but Scott Dibert and Sheldon Warwa would be the two best guys I have ever coached. Both were drafted in the CFL. Don't think sheldon made it in the league very long, but Dibert played in the CFL for 7-10 years as a slot and fullback. Both guys played hard, were great team players, both from Cananda ah.

I've never had a best. I keep telling myself to make this year's kid the best I've ever had. Some day I'll have some story that is hopefully close to your stories, but that's going to be tough. There are some pretty good ones here.

Isn't it cool how much better coaches we all are when we have really good players?

The best athlete I've coached that made it big time was Eric Johnson, he went to Nebraska as a DB and won a national championship there and then went on to the NFL with the Raiders. I think the best are yet to come though, we have some special kids coming up...