Gelen Robinson's father and older brother have achieved basketball stardom. He's taking a slightly different path.
Photo by John Rowland
is the son of former NBA star Glenn Robinson II and the younger brother of University of Michigan basketball standout Glenn Robinson III.
Even though he never embraced basketball, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior at
Lake Central (St. John, Ind.) has developed into one of the nation's premier three-sport athletes with a dominating career in football, wrestling and track and field.
"I never take a day off," Robinson said proudly. "I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just my lifestyle. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting tired, but if I wasn't in three sports, I'd probably get pretty bored. It's definitely in my personality. I think wrestling and track have helped train me all year round (for football). (The NFL) has always been one of my goals and always will be until I achieve it."
Robinson may eschew the trend of leaving for collegeearly just so he can vie for a state title in the shot putand discus.
Photo by John Rowland
Robinson is a bone-crunching linebacker who runs 40 yards in a superb 4.5 seconds, bench presses 340 pounds and has a 35-inch vertical jump. Yet, he is a super-sensitive teammate who goes out of his way not to hurt teammates in practice - or even opponents on the field.
He said modestly, "I never intentionally have tried to hurt anyone. I try not only to protect myself and my teammates, even opponents."
See the special Gelen Robinson photo galleryThere have been times during football practice, in fact, when he has purposely fallen down when a younger lineman has attempted to block him. On one occasion he was running an opponent's defensive plays and crashed through the Lake Central line so many times that coaches ordered him thrown out of practice. It took the confused youngster a while to figure out what he had done wrong.
During Robinson's three varsity football campaigns, the Indians have improved from 2-8 to 8-2 and 8-3.
Coach Brett Germain said, "It's turned around and he obviously has been a key to that. He's kind of been the face of change in our program."
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