LancerMan360
New member
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Lancers, who do you think is the Top Ten Athletes in Lasalle High School history name them.
Lancers, who do you think is the Top Ten Athletes in Lasalle High School history name them.
You have to mean A.J Nieman and not Shields as the best QB in LaSalle history. A.J Nieman was probably the best football player in LaSalle history.
WHat about all those who have competed at the HIGHEST level attainable in their sport?
Tom Luken...... Philadelphia Eagles 1972-78 Purdue University
Dave LaFary.... NO Saints 1977- 1986 Purdue
Don Hasselbeck Patriots, Raiders, VIkings 77-85 Colorado Univ (All American at Colo)
Jerry DOerger 82-85 NFL and USFL U Wisconsin
CHris Smith 85-86 KC Chiefs NOtre Dame
TY DOuthard 1997 Bengals U Illinois
Brent Celek 2007- Eagles. UC.
TIm Naehring Red SOx... 90-97
Zach Day 4 MLB teams 02-06.
THere's 9 off the top. Add Posey and Martin. Possibly Burden as well.
THe guys who won state in wrestling and diving as well as track are fun to discuss....... but NONE has gone on to do anything. And when you start paring the list down they drop off. Burden and Posey are the exception because of success in other sports. When one competes in the olympics or on the pro circuit then that guy is worthy to be discussed further.
I think those 9 above plus Doug Shields are all worthy to be discussed. But keep it going. We need some younger guys opinions on the 90's and 00's guys.
AJ didn't have the speed that Shields had. Shields could roll out and if the receivers were covered he cold run for 20 yards. AJ couldn't do that.
I believe Shields was 16-5 as the LS QB where Niemann was 13-7. Shields took us to a 4th spot in the Harbin's and our first playoff game. In fairness to AJ, as a Jr he led the team to an 8-2 and 3d in the Harbin's..... but only 2 teams made it then.
As for AJ being the best FB player in LS history....... he's really not even in the top 10
Hasselbeck, Luken, LaFary, Jerry Doerger, Meadows, Celek, C Smith, Douthard, Posey, Ben Martin..... there's a few others before you get to Niemann.
Sure you can consider them if they won a state title..... but when they got to college you really see how good they are/were.A person who has won an indiviudal state title has to be considered. Any football player who didn't make first team all state has to fall off because they weren't the best in their event like the state champs were.
Another individual State Champion was Evan Kling in bowling in 2007. That was the first year bowling was a sanctioned sport by the OHSAA.
This thread is about what people did while at La Salle. It's the best athletes at La Salle. It not a list of who went on to make the pros. Your analagy of comparing the NFL to the Olympic team is a poor one at best. There are 30 NFL teams, aren't there, yet there is only one national team for the Worlds each year or the Olympics every four years. There are over 200 guys drafted by the NFL each year. If you don't make it one year, you can play NFL Europe, CFL, AFL, etc. and try again the following year to get drafted by one of 30 teams. Also many NFL teams hold tryouts or talk to non-drafted players each year.
By your own post graduate theory, Haucke would never make the list.
1. In his last three years at UC, the team did not get either an NCAA nor an NIT bit following UC's glory early of the late 50s and early 60s. He was an average player at best at UC.
2. He never played at the highest level in his sport--the NBA.
LS1944 - Yes Nieman did throw it 40 times a game but he does still hold all the records in school history and was in the 1st Hall of Fame class. this about best athletes in school hstory! He also was a pretty good pitcher. i dont believe Doug Shields was Enquirer player of the year in football, i believe the only LaSalle player to have ever one that was Nieman. If you need some more info i can bring it.
One other thing I dont believe that Ledbetter and Groeschen were invovled in the Player of the Year in 1983