Ernie Davis' name is stenciled on the field, and photos of both the Elmira Express and Manhasset great Jim Brown adorn the walls of the building.
But a player who makes magnificent moves that draw ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd doesn't get compared to the legends from another era, whose scholastic exploits are quite possibly preserved only on long-forgotten spools of grainy film stored in some basement.
No, when a player turns heads these days, the assembled reporters in the press box refer to it as "pulling a Mike Hart."
Hart was a three-time state player of the year in his class and led
Onondaga (Nedrow, N.Y.) to small-school state crowns in 2001-03 before going on to gain 5,040 career yards at Michigan and then getting a cup of coffee in the NFL.
It wasn't the 11,045 career yards – nearly two miles more than the No. 2 rusher on the all-time state list— that moved Hart to the top. Rather, it was the way he did it.
Hart ripped off long scoring runs that were bursts of pure speed, but he was at his best when forced to improvise. His winning touchdown in the 2002 semifinals vs. Le Roy — a broken-field ramble in which he could have been taken down at least four times — is referred to simply as "The Play" on the Le Roy website.
It epitomized the skill and excitement Hart brought to the field every week of his stellar career.
The No. 2 candidate from my more than three decades of watching high school football in New York would also be a relatively recent star: Ray Rice. As a New Rochelle senior, his combination of size, speed and skill showed through. He was outdueling National Player of the Year Greg Paulus in the state final before being sidelined by an injury. Paulus eventually rallied Syracuse CBA to a 41-35 victory, but Rice went on to brilliant college and pro careers.
John Moriello began covering high school sports with the Rochester
(N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle in 1982 and has been president of the New
York State Sportswriters Association since 1999.
