Super Bowl LV: Where the Chiefs, Buccaneers played high school football

By Zack Poff Feb 1, 2021, 10:30am

Florida has produced 14 players including Antonio Brown, Lavonte David, Jason Pierre-Paul, Sammy Watkins.

Super Bowl LV kicks off in Tampa in less than a week and  fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are gearing up for the big game. But across the country, hometowns of the Super Bowl participants also take pride in knowing a favorite son could soon hoist the iconic Lombardi Trophy.

MaxPreps takes a look where all the players on the active rosters and injured reserve of each team played high school football. Sixty players are represented from the AFC champions while the NFC champs had 61.

The high school football hotbed of Florida leads the way with 14 players overall, but it's not California, Georgia or Texas with the second most. Instead, it's Pennsylvania with nine players, led by former Woodland Hills (Pittsburgh) standout Rob Gronkowski.

California, Georgia and Texas each register eight players who played prep ball in state.



Among the California and Texas contingents are the Super Bowl's most notable stars — Tom Brady who graduated in 1995 from Serra (San Mateo, Calif.) and Patrick Mahomes graduated 19 years later in 2014 from Whitehouse (Texas).

Tyreek Hill graduated from Coffee (Douglas, Ga.) in 2012 and was not ranked coming out of high school and had zero offers.

Only two high schools had more than one player featured. Tyrann Mathieu and Leonard Fournette both attended St. Augustine (New Orleans) while Antonio Brown and Carlton Davis graduated from Norland (Miami) nine years apart.

In total, 28 different states had at least one player while 11 had more than five.
Graphic by Ryan Escobar
Kansas City Chiefs

California (2)
Mitchell Schwartz, Palisades (Pacific Palisades) | Class of 2007
Daniel Sorenson, Colton | Class of 2008

Colorado (1)
Mike Pennel, Grandview (Aurora) | Class of 2012



Florida (6)
Rashad Fenton, Carol City (Miami) | Class of 2015
Chris Lammons, Plantation | Class of 2014
Byron Pringle, Robinson (Tampa) | Class of 2012
Austin Reiter, Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton) | Class of 2010
Tommy Townsend, Boone (Orlando) | Class of 2015
Sammy Watkins, South Fort Myers (Fort Myers) | Class of 2011

Georgia (4)
Harrison Butker, Westminster (Atlanta) | Class of 2013
Mecole Hardman, Elbert County (Elberton) | Class of 2016
Tyreek Hill, Coffee (Douglas) | Class of 2012
Demarcus Robinson, Peach County (Fort Valley) | Class of 2013

Illinois (2)
Nick Allegretti, Lincoln-Way East (Frankfort) | Class of 2010
Ben Niemann, Sycamore | Class of 2014

Kentucky (1)
Deon Yelder, Southern (Louisville) | Class of 2013

Louisiana (4)
Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Catholic (Baton Rouge) | Class of 2017
Tyrann Mathieu, St. Augustine (New Orleans) | Class of 2010
L'Jarius Sneed, Minden | Class of 2016
Darrel Williams, John Ehret (Marrero) | Class of 2014

Maryland (1)
Dorian O'Daniel, Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney) | Class of 2013



Massachusetts (1)
Anthony Sherman, North Attleborough | Class of 2007

Michigan (4)
Mike Danna, De La Salle Collegiate (Warren) | Class of 2015
Eric Fisher, Stoney Creek (Rochester Hills) | Class of 2009
Nick Keizer, Portage Northern (Portage) | Class of 2013
Andrew Wylie, Midland | Class of 2012

Mississippi (7)
Willie Gay, Starkville | Class of 2017
Darius Harris, Horn Lake | Class of 2014
Chris Jones, Houston | Class of 2013
Thakarius "BoPete" Keyes, Laurel | Class of 2016
Martinas Rankin, Mendenhall | Class of 2013
Charvarius Ward, McComb | Class of 2014
Damien Wilson, Amite County (Liberty) | Class of 2011

Missouri (2)
Khalen Saunders, Parkway Central (Chesterfield) | Class of 2014
Tershawn Wharton, University City (St. Louis) | Class of 2016

North Carolina (1)
Tim Ward, High Point Central (High Point) | Class of 2015

Ohio (5)
Le'Veon Bell, Groveport-Madison (Groveport) | Class of 2010
Taco Charlton, Pickerington Central (Pickerington) | Class of 2013
Frank Clark, Glenville (Cleveland) | Class of 2011
Anthony Hitchens, Clearview (Lorain) | Class of 2010
Travis Kelce, Cleveland Heights | Class of 2008

Oklahoma (2)
Darwin Thompson, Jenks | Class of 2015
James Winchester, Washington | Class of 2008

Oregon (1)
Mike Remmers, Jesuit (Portland) | Class of 2007



Pennsylvania (4)
Yasir Durant, Imhotep Charter (Philadelphia) | Class of 2016
Chad Henne, Wilson (West Lawn) | Class of 2004
Tanoh Kpassagnon, Wissahickon (Ambler) | Class of 2012
Stefen Wisniewski, Central Catholic (Pittsburgh) | Class of 2007

South Carolina (3)
Bashaud Breeland, Allendale-Fairfax (Fairfax) | Class of 2010
Alex Brown, Lake Marion (Santee) | Class of 2014
Antonio Hamilton, Strom Thurmond (Johnston) | Class of 2011

Tennessee (1)
Daniel Kilgore, Dobyns-Bennett (Kingsport) | Class of 2006

Texas (5)
Patrick Mahomes, Whitehouse | Class of 2014
Alex Okafor, Pflugerville | Class of 2009
Kelechi Osemele, Langham Creek (Houston) | Class of 2007
Ricky Seals-Jones, Sealy | Class of 2013
Armani Watts, North Forney (Forney) | Class of 2014

Utah (1)
Marcus Kemp, Layton | Class of 2013

Virginia (2)
Derrick Nnadi, Ocean Lakes (Virginia Beach, Va.) | Class of 2014
Juan Thornhill, Altavista | Class of 2015

Tampa Bay Buccaneers



Alabama (3)
O.J. Howard, Autauga Academy (Prattville) | Class of 2013
Steve McLendon, Carroll (Ozark) | Class of 2004
Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Central (Phenix City) | Class of 2011

California (6)
Kenjon Barner, Notre Dame (Riverside) | Class of 2008
Tom Brady, Serra (San Mateo) | Class of 1995
Deone Bucannon, Vanden (Fairfield) | Class of 2010
Alex Cappa, Dublin | Class of 2013
Ryan Griffin, Chaminade (West Hills) | Class of 2008
Vita Vea, Milpitas | Class of 2013

Colorado (1)
Ryan Jensen, Fort Morgan | Class of 2009

Delaware (1)
Chris Godwin, Middletown | Class of 2014

Florida (8)
Antonio Brown, Norland (Miami) | Class of 2006
Lavonte David, Northwestern (Miami) | Class of 2008
Carlton Davis, Norland (Miami) | Class of 2015
Jamel Dean, Cocoa | Class of 2015
John Franklin, South Plantation (Plantation) | Class of 2013
Javon Hagan, Trinity Christian Academy (Jacksonville) | Class of 2015
Ted Larsen, Palm Harbor University (Palm Harbor) | Class of 2005
Jason Pierre-Paul, Deerfield Beach | Class of 2007

Georgia (4)
Andrew Adams, Woodward Academy (College Park) | Class of 2011
Cam Gill, Chapel Hill (Douglasville) | Class of 2016
Jeremiah Ledbetter, Gainesville | Class of 2012
Kevin Minter, Peachtree Ridge (Suwanee) | Class of 2009



Illinois (3)
Cameron Brate, Naperville Central (Naperville) | Class of 2010
Scotty Miller, Barrington | Class of 2015
Patrick O'Connor, St. Rita (Chicago) | Class of 2012

Iowa (2)
Anthony Nelson, Waukee | Class of 2015
Tristan Wirfs, Mt. Vernon | Class of 2017

Louisiana (2)
Leonard Fournette, St. Augustine (New Orleans) | Class of 2014
Devin White, North Webster (Springhill) | Class of 2016

Maryland (2)
Donovan Smith, Owings Mills | Class of 2011
Ryan Smith, Wise (Upper Marlboro) | Class of 2011

Massachusetts (1)
Zach Triner, Marshfield | Class of 2009

Michigan (2)
William Gholston, Southeastern (Detroit) | Class of 2010
Sean Murphy-Bunting, Chippewa Valley (Clinton Township) | Class of 2015



Minnesota (3)
Jack Cichy, Hill-Murray (Maplewood) | Class of 2013
Joe Haeg, Brainerd | Class of 2011
Tyler Johnson, North Community (Minneapolis) | Class of 2016

Missouri (2)
Khalil Davis, Blue Springs | Class of 2015
Blaine Gabbert, Parkway West (Ballwin) | Class of 2008

Nebraska (1)
Shaquil Barrett, Boys Town | Class of 2010

New York (1)
Ali Marpet, Hastings (Hastings on Hudson) | Class of 2010

North Carolina (4)
Ross Cockrell, Charlotte Latin (Charlotte) | Class of 2009
T.J. Logan, Northern Guilford (Greensboro) | Class of 2013
Bradley Pinion, Northwest Cabarrus (Concord) | Class of 2012
Ryan Succop, Hickory | Class of 2005

Ohio (1)
Mike Edwards, Winton Woods (Cincinnati) | Class of 2014

Oregon (1)
Ndamukong Suh, Grant (Portland) | Class of 2005



Pennsylvania (5)
Rob Gronkowski, Woodland Hills (Pittsburgh) | Class of 2007
LeSean McCoy, Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg) | Class of 2006
A.Q. Shipley, Moon Area (Moon Township) | Class of 2004
Justin Watson, South Fayette (McDonald) | Class of 2014
Jordan Whitehead, Central Valley (Monaca) | Class of 2015

Tennessee (2)
Tanner Hudson, Camden Central (Camden) | Class of 2013
Ke'Shawn Vaughn, Pearl-Cohn (Nashville) | Class of 2015

Texas (3)
Mike Evans, Ball (Galveston) | Class of 2011
Ronald Jones II, McKinney North (McKinney) | Class of 2015
Antoine Winfield Jr., The Woodlands | Class of 2016

Virginia (2)
Aaron Stinnie, St. Anne's-Belfield (Charlottesville) | Class of 2013
Josh Wells, Hanover (Mechanicsville) | Class of 2009

Canada (1)
Anthony Auclair, Champlain College Lennox (Quebec, Canada)