Greatest Team Leader or Captain
- Thread starter Wassup13
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Johnny Toews, one of the best. A leader at 19. Calm, well spoken yet passionate and motivational.
High school, wow! Wide spectrum. Recently I’d give a nod to Sampson Evans from PR. Funny he looks a little like Tazer.
High school, wow! Wide spectrum. Recently I’d give a nod to Sampson Evans from PR. Funny he looks a little like Tazer.
One of the greatest I've seen is captain Chris Chelios. He was the definition of a team leader. He made everyone around him a better player and backed down to nobody. Always in the middle of things and played his best at all times.
Mt Carmel kid too.
Mt Carmel kid too.
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Accountability and humility and honesty about ability.
Darond Stovall. Managed Hickey’s ego and yet was a better athlete.
Darond Stovall. Managed Hickey’s ego and yet was a better athlete.
Greatest HS team leader...My leader has to the leader of a team of leaders, Al Zlomie of Wilmington. One of the very few freshman ever to play varsity under Reents, his career was epic, ending as the Captain of the '14 3A champions...for as much as letting others take the glory as he very much deserved.
His QB was the OC's son, Southall.
After two all conference years at left wing and linebacker as a soph & junior, and a junior all-state selection as a linebacker in '13, Zlomie got moved to possibly the least glamourous position on Wilmington's offense - left end/WR. This opened up an '14 All-State opportunity for Wilmo's right wing, McWilliams, who didn't play defense regularly. It also allowed Southall to actually have some passing stats...
Part of the reason he was moved to WR was that he got dinged up as a junior (against winless Dwight, no less) and missed a couple games, opening up the left wing position for '15 All Stater Hawkins.
He had a 6'5", 205 left tackle/DE who was first team All-Conference in basketball on a 2 win hoops team, Rock. Rock spent a lot of time tying up linemen so Zlomie could roam free to make tackles...
Halfway thru the '14 season, '16 All-Stater Weaver was moved up to Varsity full time and in essence took Zlomie's outside linebacker slot - as Zlomie became the do whatever we need done guy on defense. Opponent has an All-State receiver? Zlomie will shut him down. Oh, power run team, Zlomie is the 4th backer...But the loss of the structured position did allow him to blitz a lot and get a bunch of sacks and TFL's, and he returned to the All-State team in '14...
But the move to WR gives Zlomie some interesting opportunities as well. He actually got split out wide quite a bit, warping the normal alignment defenses wanted to use against the double wing. The corner had to go out instead of just playing run support, and a safety had to shift over because it was just unfair to a corner to be left on an island with an 205 pound All-State running back playing WR. And the safety playing wider created a cutback lane for the right wing, resulting in many long runs. This helped McWilliams be the All-State wing instead of Zlomie going both ways...
Basically Zlomie's willingness to be moved around despite being the star and captain created the situation which resulted in the Wildcats winning the state title...That is true leadership.
His QB was the OC's son, Southall.
After two all conference years at left wing and linebacker as a soph & junior, and a junior all-state selection as a linebacker in '13, Zlomie got moved to possibly the least glamourous position on Wilmington's offense - left end/WR. This opened up an '14 All-State opportunity for Wilmo's right wing, McWilliams, who didn't play defense regularly. It also allowed Southall to actually have some passing stats...
Part of the reason he was moved to WR was that he got dinged up as a junior (against winless Dwight, no less) and missed a couple games, opening up the left wing position for '15 All Stater Hawkins.
He had a 6'5", 205 left tackle/DE who was first team All-Conference in basketball on a 2 win hoops team, Rock. Rock spent a lot of time tying up linemen so Zlomie could roam free to make tackles...
Halfway thru the '14 season, '16 All-Stater Weaver was moved up to Varsity full time and in essence took Zlomie's outside linebacker slot - as Zlomie became the do whatever we need done guy on defense. Opponent has an All-State receiver? Zlomie will shut him down. Oh, power run team, Zlomie is the 4th backer...But the loss of the structured position did allow him to blitz a lot and get a bunch of sacks and TFL's, and he returned to the All-State team in '14...
But the move to WR gives Zlomie some interesting opportunities as well. He actually got split out wide quite a bit, warping the normal alignment defenses wanted to use against the double wing. The corner had to go out instead of just playing run support, and a safety had to shift over because it was just unfair to a corner to be left on an island with an 205 pound All-State running back playing WR. And the safety playing wider created a cutback lane for the right wing, resulting in many long runs. This helped McWilliams be the All-State wing instead of Zlomie going both ways...
Basically Zlomie's willingness to be moved around despite being the star and captain created the situation which resulted in the Wildcats winning the state title...That is true leadership.
Is this McWilliams related to Dean McWilliams who would have graduated around 1988 (+/- 2 years)? He seems to be about the right age to be his son.
I believe Dean was an All-State running back as well.
True.
I kind of left that out of my question intentionally. Dean played on a very good JC sophomore team as a freshman, but overall he saw fairly limited playing time on the Soph team even though he was plenty talented due to learning JC's more complex system.
Between the limited play time, long commute, expense of tuition, his brother going to WHS (and) his friends / Bobcat teammates playing at WHS returning to play for Wilmington became an obvious choice.
Best high school captain, John Lausch. Captain of 87 JC state championship team. Outstanding player and teammate who went on to captain the Harvard football team. He is now the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Led by example on and off the field, both then and now. Great leader and role model.
I’m gonna go with Cappy, played by Charlie Sheen in the movie Lucas. Skilled receiver but also had a great sense of compassion. On the pro side, I’m going with Terry Ruskowski from the Blackhawks in the late 70’s early 80’s. Led the team in points for a couple years, not afraid to drop the gloves either. Great moustache as well.
I know it’s not his son.....might be related though. I believe that family moved to Wilmington from Texas when his brother was in high school (class of ‘10 maybe?). Now whether or not they had Wilmo roots originally I’m not totally sure of.
I do not know that answer. "My" oldest was classmates and teammates with Weaver and McWilliams younger brother Brett, sophs the title year. Brett had more of an attitude than his older brother - and was most likely the one to get into a fight/pick up a personal foul for a cheap shot on the '16 team that was likely the second best in 3A to IC...My oldest & Brett didn't get along too well, so I didn't get to know him...
If we are going to talk about top current leaders in Chicago professional sports, I'll go with Jonathan Toews. I would have said Marian Hossa, but "Hoss" is retired now.
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