CNY's 50 greatest HS players ever

[OrangePA]

Define not very good...he started at Duke. He averaged double digits points while starting for two years and shooting over 40% from 3. Yes, he gave way this senior year.

Yes, I am a CBA homer. However, I think a lot of folks underestimate what he accomplished in his collegiate career. I thin he could have been one of the best collegiate QB's of his era. He saw the field like a 15 year old NFL veteran.

I believe that Paulus had a remarkable season for the Orange in 2009.

By the end of the season he was playing the position very well. Recall that he was the team MVP that year - after not having played football for four years and without spring practice. Amazing.

What he did for Marrone in 2009 was nothing short of remarkable.

 

[OrangePA]

That he was. He should have been ranked higher, IMO.

I did beat him one time in a 2 on 2 game. Foosball at TC's...

Ha!

 

[OrangePA]

Pete was an amazing athlete. Played against him many times.

Best HS BB passer I ever saw in CNY.

Still upset he did not play for Boeheim.

I think he would have been a terrific college BB player.

 

[OrangeOnions]

Marcus Welch from Westhill should have been on this list IMO. The man was a beast of middle linebacker and running back. He made Sports Illustrated faces in the crowd for 1 particular game he shredded Solvay for 455 yards and 6 TD's.

 

[xc84]

Best HS BB passer I ever saw in CNY.

Still upset he did not play for Boeheim.

I think he would have been a terrific college BB player.

Did he get recruited by Boeheim?

 

[Eric15]

I said Paulus was not a very good player in basketball or football at the college level. He was not an AA, nor was he an all conference player.

He was a good player at the college level. In two sports. No shame in that.

Being able to win a starting job in basketball at Duke is a great accomplishment for someone from a small school in CNY. Winning a starting position at QB at a D1 football program after taking 4 years off from the game is also extremely impressive.

I just don't think he was the best QB in the history of NYS. It is just an opinion.

On the positive side, I am very excited to see that the famous jerseys of St Vincent's will be worn by CBA this weekend. That is awesome. Might have to stop by OCC to watch that Ludden - CBA game at 7.

Retro jerseys back representing Central, Valley, St. Vincent, St. Anthony in Zebra Classic

Now these look like kids. It's amazing how much a mullet and dirty mustache can make a person look 15 years older.

 

[Ward]

I don't know about that. He was relatively small, relatively weak, quite slow and had a weak arm.

You can argue he was the most over-rated QB in the history of New York State but when you have multiple players who were major stars in the NFL, winners or near winners of the Heisman Trophy, etc. to compete with, Paulus can't win, at least not in my opinion. A big part of his success was the system he had a chance to run and the top notch OL and WRs he had to play with.

I would rate Boomer Esiason, Vinnie Testaverde, Ron Jaworski, Don McPherson and now Jack Coan higher.

That being said, I would certainly include Paulus in the top 10 players from CNY. While he wasn't blessed with much in terms of physical skills, he was very smart and a great competitor. He did amazing things considering how limited he was as an athlete.

I'm not saying Paulus was the best NYS QB ever but you are giving him WAY too little credit. The below is against New Rochelle who was starting I think 7-8 D1 athletes on defense and was the defending state champion in AA.

 

[Ward]

I said Paulus was not a very good player in basketball or football at the college level. He was not an AA, nor was he an all conference player.

He was a good player at the college level. In two sports. No shame in that.

Being able to win a starting job in basketball at Duke is a great accomplishment for someone from a small school in CNY. Winning a starting position at QB at a D1 football program after taking 4 years off from the game is also extremely impressive.

I just don't think he was the best QB in the history of NYS. It is just an opinion.

On the positive side, I am very excited to see that the famous jerseys of St Vincent's will be worn by CBA this weekend. That is awesome. Might have to stop by OCC to watch that Ludden - CBA game at 7.

Retro jerseys back representing Central, Valley, St. Vincent, St. Anthony in Zebra Classic

Except that time he was All-ACC in 2008 or made the All-ACC Freshman team in 2006...

 

[xc84]

Except that time he was All-ACC in 2008 or made the All-ACC Freshman team in 2006...

Reminds me of an old Reebok (I think) commercial. There is a runner saying something like "They say my form is bad and I am too short and I am not fast enough... I never should have broken those 3 world records."

 

[OrangePA]

Did he get recruited by Boeheim?

I'm sure he did.

Pete Holohan was a great athlete.

 

[OrangePA]

Very good players don't get beat out of their starting job as a senior. At least not in my definition of very good. I am done; this is beyond boring discussing further.

Some do.

There is always someone better coming along at Duke.

 

[retro44]

I believe you are thinking of Paul Tripoli. He played option QB at Liverpool. I believe Todd Richardson played with him as a RB and also went to Bama.

Chris Jones, who did make the team, might have also played with them and Hank Flournory (sp?) also came out of Liverpool about the same time. Hank went to Syracuse. Green, Pendock and Sweeney were just before this group, Houlihan was not much in front of them, and Gedney not too long afterwards. Holihan, Green and Gedney also made the team.

It was an incredible run of athletes from one HS; even better than the string of D1 athletes Henninger produced in the 1980-2000 range (Tony Jones was an
OL for BC, Williams, Brown, Mallory, Patterson, Walker, Butler, etc...).

Tony Jones nickname was "tree "at 6'5" 265 . Very good friend of mine.Some real battles were had.
Mark ? His brother played for the steelers. I watched him score the first 4 times he touched the ball and they came from a Kick off return,punt return,interception and then a reception from his T.E. position.

Also you had Tony Huddleston and Jerome Hall who both went to SU. and I played with them. Horace Allen was recently recognized as one of the top 40 influential black Americans today with a net worth of excess 400$ million.

 

[retro44]

What ever happened to him? I forget the story.

My wife taught him at Henninger and let's just not go any farther.Been some personal issues.

 

[Ward]

That's like saying Frank Howard, Josh Wright, and Michael Edwards were very good because they started for Syracuse. Very good compared to who?

Duke's a great program, and yeah it's certainly a great achievement to play for them or start for them. That doesn't mean every single player they've trotted out onto the floor has been a very good college player. Paulus was probably in the bottom half of the ACC starting PGs when he played.

He was literally All-ACC though.

 

[xc84]

He was literally All-ACC though.

That was the year that they had an ACC point guard convention and all the good point guards were on the same plane that crashed. Obviously Paulus wasn't on the plane so he sort of lucked out with the All-ACC thing.

 

[IthacaMatt]

NFW Mike Hart, or anyone, should be ahead of Dorsey.

He was a man amongst boys. Parade All American and a dominant bball player (All State I believe).

Go Mighty Bulldogs!!

Mike Hart gained 5,000 yards in college and finished his career as THEIR all-time leader in yards and touchdowns. For MICHIGAN. Mike Hart from OCS. If that isn't the single biggest accomplishment of any player out of CNY ever, then shut me up.

Oh yeah, and he scored 200 touchdowns and won 3 straight state championships in high school.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I have to agree with Tomcat about Paulus regarding basketball. While at CBA he was so dominant because he was such an early bloomer, pretty fully developed athletically by his freshman year in HS, was into working out from a young age, trained hard year round and was older than his peers. His physical dominance waned as he got older, the game speeded up and other kids developed.

He was very smart, his savvy and understanding of the game gave him an advantage that helped his decreasing athletic edge. He knew what to do but his lack of speed prevented him from consistently doing what he wanted against peer competition on the court as he aged. He wanted to be a basketball coach forever but athletically he may have been better served playing football than basketball in college. The kid and his family had a plan from a young age and he's doing what he always wanted to do - coach basketball.

 

[clayman32]

Damien Mallory from Henninger was a parade all-American I believe. And he might have been the top rated Defensive end in the country that year.He signed with syracuse.

Wasn't there a really good rb from Corcoran around the same time as Mallory? Parade All-American too I think. Also had grade issues and never made it to SU. I wanna say his last name was Howard but I'm drawing a blank for the first

 

[kcsu]

I said Paulus was an all-time top ten player for CNY. Just took issue with the guy who thought he was the best QB in NYS history.

The fact is, he was not a very good basketball player or football player in college. The jump from CBA to D1 athletics is huge and he wasn't equipped athletically to make the transition and still dominate.

He is clearly the best HS QB to come out of CNY.

And I agree about Williams. Other than Walker from Henninger, he was the best WR from CNY ever. Definitely belonged on the list.

He would be our starting pg today. Made all ACC twice. Started for SU at QB. He was an exceptional athlete. It is extremely rare to play college basketball and football at the level he did.

 

[ForCuseSake]

Mike Hart gained 5,000 yards in college and finished his career as THEIR all-time leader in yards and touchdowns. For MICHIGAN. Mike Hart from OCS. If that isn't the single biggest accomplishment of any player out of CNY ever, then shut me up.

Oh yeah, and he scored 200 touchdowns and won 3 straight state championships in high school.

I don't care that Mike Hart was ground into dust with 40 carries a game by a senile Lloyd Carr. He had barely a cup of coffee in the NFL.

Dorsey was infinitely more successful at the game's highest level.

If you ever saw Levens play in HS you would understand. He was a massive kid who could outrun everyone on the field or run over them whenever he wanted.

He didn't play in lil ole Class C, or whatever Onondaga was in the 2000s. He played against much better competition and still dominated in a pre-spread era.

I like Mike Hart and agreee he was a top 5 HS football player in CNY but he's about the size of Dorsey Levens' left quad.

 

[orangenauburn]

Leonard Hamilton from Auburn and later Baldwinsville was a tremendous TB and CB ... Too bad he was caught in the game and was arrested before ever making it to SU

A lot of Auburn kids from that era were

 

[OrangePA]

Good look at area players over the past 50 years.

CNY's 50 all-time greatest high school football players, in order

Some great memories.

Marty Domres has to be the greatest QB to come out of CNY. He had a pretty decent NFL career and was the guy who replaced Johnny Unitas in Baltimore. I always respected Jim Rosencrans, but could not believe that he chose Penn State over Syracuse - how could he??

Tom Rafferty came out of my High School, Fayetteville-Manlius. Well into his career with the Dallas Cowboys I played a pick up BB game with him at the high school. I have never seen a guy who had such a thick neck that he really didn't have a neck at all - his shoulders went straight to his head.

Tommy Myers also came out of FM. He was without any doubt the best DB I ever saw at Syracuse University and maybe the best overall player I ever saw play for the Orange - I just missed Floyd Little. Tommy could hit, could cover, could get the ball and was as good a punt returner as I have ever seen.

For me, the most noteworthy guy is Buddy Hardeman from Auburn. When Ben Schwartzwalder was forced to retire in 1973, his long time assistant Jim Shreve, frosh coach and RB coach, was not retained by Maloney and took a job at Iowa State.

Coach Shreve took Buddy Hardeman, a really talented QB, with him.

I was a kid back then but I was crushed - how could we lose a player like that to Iowa State!!!??

I realized at that moment that the Syracuse Football Program had lost something and was in a bad way.

 

[OrangePA]

Trivia time: who's the player on other side of the coach?

Chris Gedney hasn't changed at all.

Great guy.

 

[retro44]

These opinion lists are good for talks,but cuseregular should have made the list