![]() ![]() Email him at and follow him on Twitter at Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at. Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Odin Stabenow, Lena-Winslow senior OL, DLīrady Sweitzer, Eastland/Pearl City senior WR, RB, DB Jaylen Noud, Durand/Pecatonica senior RB, DBĮthan Petta, Eastland/Pearl City senior TE Jaxon Diedrich, Durand/Pecatonica junior DEīraden Engel, Stillman Valley senior QB, DBĬooper Hoffman, Durand/Pecatonica junior QBĮrik Kormockzy, Durand/Pecatonica senior OL, DLĮthan Mattingley, Rockford Christian senior OL, DL Will Birchen, Eastland/Pearl City sophomore LB Nico Bertolino, Belvidere North senior RB ![]() They are listed in alphabetical order with their team name, their year in school and their position last season. So to get you ready for what's to come, here are 50 high school football players to watch from the Rockford area headed into the 2023 season. More: Local football Guilford's Mya Page can do it all, but she's really ready to step up in flag football Frick Award for broadcasting and John Lowe, who received the BBWAA Career Excellence Award.Football is creeping into the minds of a lot of fans from the Rockford area with the 2023 high school season just around the corner. Two others honored Saturday were Pat Hughes, winner of the Ford C. ![]() He was a professional all the way and played the game the way it should be played.” He was going to make all the plays and he came up with big hits. “If you hit the ball to third base you were going to be out. “He played the game the right way,” McGriff countered. “I always looked up to Fred and his career for sure.” “I was always enamored of him just how strong he was. The careers of McGriff and Rolen overlapped, and they spoke glowingly of each other. For my parents to have a better opportunity to see me play was great for me. “Atlanta was closest to my home (in Florida). At the time we didn’t have the Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins,” McGriff said. That place is unbelievable.”īut he has no regrets, especially concerning his time with Atlanta. “And the stadium they have now? That is a real bandbox they have now. “That little, short porch in right field? That would’ve been a beautiful thing for me,” McGriff said. His 493 home runs were tied for tenth in major league history among left-handed hitters when he retired, but McGriff wondered what his numbers would have looked like had he played his entire career with the New York Yankees, the team that drafted him. The five-time All-Star helped Atlanta win the 1995 World Series. 284 with 493 homers and 1,550 RBIs over 19 seasons with six major league teams. McGriff, the lanky first baseman known as Crime Dog, hit. His glove put him over the top, but there was not one area in which he didn’t excel.” “He was strong in everything, all aspects of the game. “He was a phenomenal, amazing athlete,” said Terry Gobert, his coach at Jasper High who was on hand for the weekend’s festivities. He will be the 18th third baseman in the Hall, the fewest of any position. That carried through my entire career.”Ī multisport athlete who was offered a basketball scholarship at Georgia, Rolen played shortstop, second base, third, right field, center, left and pitcher at Jasper High School before settling at third in his sophomore or junior year. ![]() There’s a toughness instilled in you to play the game the right way and to play hard. I truly believe I learned to play the game there. “I still have lifelong friends from Philadelphia. “I feel like I always cherished my time in Philadelphia,” Rolen said. His stint with the Phillies ended on a sour note, but with time has come appreciation for the time he spent in Philly. 314 in 2006, when the Cardinals won the World Series. He was a unanimous pick as the 1997 NL Rookie of the Year and hit. The chest gets a little tight and then you hear the news.” This last one caught up to me when I thought it would be a real thing. The last year, yeah, I knew there was a chance with this one. “The first year we were trying to get to a certain number (to stay on the ballot). “The first five years there wasn’t much pressure at all,” Rolen said. Along with that realization came some stress. It wasn’t until the past year that Rolen felt he had a great shot to get in. In his first year of eligibility, Rolen received just 10.2%, the lowest first-ballot percentage of a player later elected. Rolen, a seven-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner, was selected on 297 of 389 ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America - or 76.3%. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |