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- Thread starter MD Buckeye
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
“IT WAS THE CLASSIC COMING-OUT GAME” : DERRICK DAVIS JR.'S STAR HAS RISEN EVER SINCE HE MADE HIS HIGH SCHOOL'S BIGGEST PLAY IN 30 YEARS
Negotiate your way around the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, past the Fort Pitt Tunnel heading east on Interstate 376 and through those two lanes of traffic that lie buried underneath Mount Washington.
On the other side, you’ll meet the face of downtown Pittsburgh as you glide over the Monongahela River on a drive across the Fort Pitt Bridge. Veer left and you’ll pass the Ohio and the Allegheny, the city’s other two interconnecting rivers, to get an up-close look at Heinz Field.
Veer right, though, bending with the curve of the Monongahela, and give yourself about 25-30 minutes to weave through the rush-hour traffic, where you’ll eventually find yourself at the suburban high school home of Derrick Davis Jr., this city’s best prep football player and the young man that every powerhouse program in the country – Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, etc. – is dying to get their hands on to lock down the back end of a national championship defense.
Davis, a kid who’s never looked like a kid, was born and raised in the suburb of Monroeville. In a few years, hundreds of thousands of people will find out how special he is and a few years after that, perhaps millions if he’s able to parlay a successful collegiate career into a couple NFL contracts.
But Monroeville? That’s where people have known for years that he was always different. Always special. And that city down the block? That’s where those assertions were affirmed on one of the biggest stages possible, his star being cemented on the 20-yard line of Pittsburgh’s football mecca.
For years, people knew Davis was gifted and at times unstoppable, that much already becoming clear at 5 years old, when Davis’ first sports memories were of him tackling poor kids in flag football and opposing parents yelling, “‘Tell him to stop tackling my child! That’s a flag!’”
Eventually, he had to stop tackling those kids because he kept getting bigger and bigger, and Venneasha and Derrick Davis Sr. were forced to answer questions of whether their child was actually a child.
“At track meets, I would run with my age group, and parents would go to my parents and say, ‘He’s not 10. He’s 12. Where’s his birth certificate?’”
Davis recalls all of these memories years later, sitting across from head coach Don Holl in his office at Gateway High School, where Davis has become America’s second-ranked junior safety prospect and a consensus top-50 overall recruit.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder is one of the most awe-dropping and jaw-inspiring players Holl has coached in his 30 years in the sport, with that praise and those rankings being born from the physicality Davis has showcased in three seasons for the Gators – a hard-nosed nastiness that makes him a fit to work inside the box on defense for the Buckeyes or Bulldogs. They’re also born from a 40-yard dash time that he’s worked down to 4.49, a closing speed that allows him to roam freely at safety and man-cover receivers on the outside and running backs in the slot, a versatility making him perfect for the Tigers or Tide.
He had similar traits as a youth player, and his persona grew in elementary and middle school in the area when Holl first came to Gateway when Davis was an eighth-grader. He heard about Davis’ prowess, but how often do coaches hear about “the next big thing” only for everyone to catch up to them when they come to high school?
“You see a big guy who no one can tackle ‘cause he’s the biggest guy, but he doesn’t grow up. He levels out,” Holl says. “Derrick was the special kind of kid who didn’t level off.”
Holl and Gateway defensive coordinator Mortty Ivy looked at each other when they first saw Davis on the field as a freshman and said to each other, “He looks like a junior.”
That first season, Davis was starting on defense, but an injury to a teammate placed Davis into the starting role at running back, and the persona that had been building for years in the area started showing itself. He became a key factor down the stretch of the season for the Gators, leading them to an 11-1 record and the moment that showed everyone he was for real.
It may look like just a first-round playoff game on a MaxPreps bracket, but the WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) championship game means a tremendous deal to those in the state.
There’s a long, convoluted and rich history with those games themselves, but we’ll boil it down to this: There are six high school classifications in the state (1A-6A), and the WPIAL title game crowns the district champion. It’s a game juiced with lifelong bragging rights and is nearly on par with winning a state title in terms of importance, and the setting for the game does it justice – since the 1980s, four of the six games each year have been played at the home of the Steelers, either at now-defunct Three Rivers Stadium or Heinz Field.
In 2017, Davis’ freshman year, the game served as a rematch against Gateway’s rival team (Penn-Trafford) that had dealt the Gators their only loss. Davis was out for revenge. He got it.
.
.
.
continued
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...r-continues-rising-ever-since-making-programs
Negotiate your way around the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, past the Fort Pitt Tunnel heading east on Interstate 376 and through those two lanes of traffic that lie buried underneath Mount Washington.
On the other side, you’ll meet the face of downtown Pittsburgh as you glide over the Monongahela River on a drive across the Fort Pitt Bridge. Veer left and you’ll pass the Ohio and the Allegheny, the city’s other two interconnecting rivers, to get an up-close look at Heinz Field.
Veer right, though, bending with the curve of the Monongahela, and give yourself about 25-30 minutes to weave through the rush-hour traffic, where you’ll eventually find yourself at the suburban high school home of Derrick Davis Jr., this city’s best prep football player and the young man that every powerhouse program in the country – Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, etc. – is dying to get their hands on to lock down the back end of a national championship defense.
Davis, a kid who’s never looked like a kid, was born and raised in the suburb of Monroeville. In a few years, hundreds of thousands of people will find out how special he is and a few years after that, perhaps millions if he’s able to parlay a successful collegiate career into a couple NFL contracts.
But Monroeville? That’s where people have known for years that he was always different. Always special. And that city down the block? That’s where those assertions were affirmed on one of the biggest stages possible, his star being cemented on the 20-yard line of Pittsburgh’s football mecca.
For years, people knew Davis was gifted and at times unstoppable, that much already becoming clear at 5 years old, when Davis’ first sports memories were of him tackling poor kids in flag football and opposing parents yelling, “‘Tell him to stop tackling my child! That’s a flag!’”
Eventually, he had to stop tackling those kids because he kept getting bigger and bigger, and Venneasha and Derrick Davis Sr. were forced to answer questions of whether their child was actually a child.
“At track meets, I would run with my age group, and parents would go to my parents and say, ‘He’s not 10. He’s 12. Where’s his birth certificate?’”
Davis recalls all of these memories years later, sitting across from head coach Don Holl in his office at Gateway High School, where Davis has become America’s second-ranked junior safety prospect and a consensus top-50 overall recruit.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder is one of the most awe-dropping and jaw-inspiring players Holl has coached in his 30 years in the sport, with that praise and those rankings being born from the physicality Davis has showcased in three seasons for the Gators – a hard-nosed nastiness that makes him a fit to work inside the box on defense for the Buckeyes or Bulldogs. They’re also born from a 40-yard dash time that he’s worked down to 4.49, a closing speed that allows him to roam freely at safety and man-cover receivers on the outside and running backs in the slot, a versatility making him perfect for the Tigers or Tide.
He had similar traits as a youth player, and his persona grew in elementary and middle school in the area when Holl first came to Gateway when Davis was an eighth-grader. He heard about Davis’ prowess, but how often do coaches hear about “the next big thing” only for everyone to catch up to them when they come to high school?
“You see a big guy who no one can tackle ‘cause he’s the biggest guy, but he doesn’t grow up. He levels out,” Holl says. “Derrick was the special kind of kid who didn’t level off.”
Holl and Gateway defensive coordinator Mortty Ivy looked at each other when they first saw Davis on the field as a freshman and said to each other, “He looks like a junior.”
That first season, Davis was starting on defense, but an injury to a teammate placed Davis into the starting role at running back, and the persona that had been building for years in the area started showing itself. He became a key factor down the stretch of the season for the Gators, leading them to an 11-1 record and the moment that showed everyone he was for real.
It may look like just a first-round playoff game on a MaxPreps bracket, but the WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) championship game means a tremendous deal to those in the state.
There’s a long, convoluted and rich history with those games themselves, but we’ll boil it down to this: There are six high school classifications in the state (1A-6A), and the WPIAL title game crowns the district champion. It’s a game juiced with lifelong bragging rights and is nearly on par with winning a state title in terms of importance, and the setting for the game does it justice – since the 1980s, four of the six games each year have been played at the home of the Steelers, either at now-defunct Three Rivers Stadium or Heinz Field.
In 2017, Davis’ freshman year, the game served as a rematch against Gateway’s rival team (Penn-Trafford) that had dealt the Gators their only loss. Davis was out for revenge. He got it.
.
.
.
continued
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...r-continues-rising-ever-since-making-programs
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0
Akron Rick
Heisman
Will be very interesting watching this class fill up. Bucks have 4 DBs committed, and Givler now has FCs in for Davies and Davis. If you count J.Johnson as a safety and not a LB (which supposedly he was guaranteed) and Givler says Davis is being recruited as a safety as well does it still add up?
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I’m not picking on you, but does Givler have a FC in for Davies? Someone on Twitter said that too, but it’s not showing he does:
https://n.rivals.com/content/forecaster_profiles/747
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Smudger
#ImYourHuckleberry
Staff member
BP Recruiting Team
'14 NFL Pick'em Champ
2x BP FBB Champ
‘18 Premier League Champ
Former FF Keeper Champ
Former FF The Deuce Champ
Former Hockey Champ
Had the same question myself. He only mentioned if he “had” to in his latest Skull Session, he would put in FC’s for both Davis & Davies.
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Akron Rick
Heisman
Sorry for the confusion. I got that 2nd hand from the 11W Board and certainly didn't want to deceive anyone. But it does appear both are trending toward the Buckeyes. Still my question stands, although Buckipower helped clear it up with his reply.
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Givler tweeted a link his weekly skull session article and said he put in two new FCs yesterday. One was Davis Jr., I’m not sure who the second one is but it doesn’t appear to be Jaylin. I think people may have ran with that and assumed.
($)
($)
Upvote
0
Smudger
#ImYourHuckleberry
Staff member
BP Recruiting Team
'14 NFL Pick'em Champ
2x BP FBB Champ
‘18 Premier League Champ
Former FF Keeper Champ
Former FF The Deuce Champ
Former Hockey Champ
Second FC was for Wilcoxson to ‘Bama given the recent developments and that you cannot just undo a pick to null or “cloudy” like on 247. Belief here is that Davis is higher on the wish list.
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Although we are loading up on DBs quickly, I tend to think Davis is a take no matter what, although I do wonder if some of the other DB commits stick if we managed to land Davies and Davis.
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