All played with or against him in a YMCA football league in fourth through sixth grades before coming together in middle school. Some of the linemen were kindergarten classmates with Stafford, who starred in soccer, baseball, basketball and football. They just understood what we were doing.” “They were really some of the smartest kids I’ve had. “It was a pretty salty group,” offensive coordinator Grayson Wells said. ( Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was the starting center for the Highland Park freshman team in 2002, but gave up football after that season to focus on baseball). Prince and Olson played at Baylor and Texas Tech, respectively.
#Highland park tx middle school professional#
Tackles Reid Prince and Chris Olson, guards James Miers and Alex Cole, center Paul Schaufele and swing lineman Seth Graham all have gone on to professional success in business, finance, law, and the Navy. That Stafford would become the top quarterback prospect in the national college recruiting class of 2006 - and gain eventual stardom at Georgia and the NFL - surprised none of the Highland Park linemen who blocked for him his senior season. “It was pretty obvious that day,” Allen said.
Stafford passed for 403 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-28 victory. Ennis featured Texas Tech-bound quarterback Graham Harrell, now USC’s offensive coordinator. Highland Park matched up against Ennis High, the top-ranked team in the state. Stafford led the freshman team to an undefeated season and then played a few snaps in a varsity playoff game, but his national coming-out party came in a playoff game during his sophomore season. “I think we all went through four or five pairs of gloves a season.” “We notched those up to like 70 miles per hour just to get prepared for Matthew’s bullets,” John Dickenson said. They were slot receivers in high school, and they readied for Stafford’s passes in practice by catching footballs fired by a pitching machine. The Dickenson twins could attest to that. “When Matthew threw that ball, it just whistled by you,” Farnsley said. Farnsley remembers the distinct sound of Stafford’s passes. Longtime Highland Park offensive line coach James Farnsley sometimes stood behind the defensive line to evaluate the blocking. Long before he played in the NFL, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford showcased his throwing skills as a sixth grader playing youth football in Highland Park, Texas. Stafford led seventh- and eighth-grade teams to undefeated seasons before reaching high school. “I said, ‘I want to win a state championship too.’ ” “And he said, ‘I want to win a state championship and play college football,’ and all that. “I went down to eighth grade, got him out of class and talked to him, and asked him what his goals were,” Allen said. Allen envisioned Stafford one day starting for the varsity and competing for a state title, an achievement that had not been reached since 1957. In Highland Park, one of the most affluent cities in Texas, several elementary schools fed into a middle school that fed into one high school. The friend was Stafford.Īfter playing basketball, the boys moved to the street and began tossing the football. One day, the boy who lived next door was playing basketball with a friend in his front yard. When Allen moved into the Dallas enclave, he said, he heard about a middle school quarterback who could throw a football 70 yards. Randy Allen was already a successful Texas high school football coach when he arrived at Highland Park High in 1999.
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