Best High School Player(s) You've Seen

[PopeSnoopDogThe1st]

Who's the best high school player(s) you've seen/played outside of your school where you played or follow? and I'm opening this up to the tristate area as well as Southeastern Ohio....

I'm from Rock Hill / Symmes Valley so from the Old OVC I'll go with Kevin Wells from C-K, a great player who could do it all; Scorer, rebound pass... Remember when RH's Dave Hopper and Randy Scarberry were seniors and played C-K on the Hill; Hopper and Scarberry were both in the in the 30's that night and Well's was in the 40's for C-K, the Redmen won something like 104-98?? There was over 200 points scored in that game by both teams...

From my old SOC days in the mid 90's at SV, I'll go with the McGraw brothers at East...

[Ironman92]

Katie Smith

[93Bulldog]

Katie Smith

Ditto

Are we talking southeast district or just in general?

In terms of high school, I didn't see LBJ play in person ... So O.J. Mayo would probably have to top my list.
In the southeast district ... Hmmmm ... I'd have to put Dante Jackson up there for sure.

[93Bulldog]

Favorite high school player to watch at the Convo?

Gotta be Geno Ford! Only got to watch him the regionals - but boy he was fun to watch.

[Hoopie74]

Brian Grant who played at Georgetown High School then In the SHL( SHAC).then to Xavier then to the pros.In high school he would recieved it in the Paint and dunk at will. He would rebound and dunk at will and he would block any shot taken in the paint. He was awesome.

[Ukfanatic]

Lebron James and it’s not close. Watched him three years at the state tournament. Saw OJ Mayo. He was really really good. A few years ago Waverly played in West Virginia against Seventh Woods team. He is now at North Carolina. The game before ours watched Ben Simmons play. All three of my kids had their picture taken with Ben. I agree on Brian Grant. He was awesome! Lawrence Funderburke was pretty good in High School as well. For southeast Ohio Dante Jackson was probably the best I have seen from around these parts.

[danicalifornia]

Dante Jackson vs Upper Sandusky and Jon Diebler at the Schott at the Play by Play Classic is the single greatest performance I’ve ever seen. That dude just utterly dominated every aspect of the game and nearly had a quadruple double (one assist and steal short) in a massive win for McClain.

Dante would definitely be up there for me in our district, but Lebron is the best I’ve seen in person, OJ Mayo would be 2nd, followed by Jarron Cumberland from Wilmington.

[Hoopie74]

Lebron James and it’s not close. Watched him three years at the state tournament. Saw OJ Mayo. He was really really good. A few years ago Waverly played in West Virginia against Seventh Woods team. He is now at North Carolina. The game before ours watched Ben Simmons play. All three of my kids had their picture taken with Ben. I agree on Brian Grant. He was awesome! Lawrence Funderburke was pretty good in High School as well. For southeast Ohio Dante Jackson was probably the best I have seen from around these parts.

We played against Funderburke,Eli Brewster,Jerry Francis ,but; Grant is the most Dominant high school player I've ever seen play. Watch him grow up into a man thru Jr high and high school. I guess I partial. Never got to watch LeBron,but; wish I could have.

[yabbadabbadoo]

I was at the Greenup county showcase the year OJ Mayo broke on the scene as a 7th grader at Rose Hill. He went baseline and dunked and you could see everyone grab their program to see who that player was. He was pretty good then.

[E High]

LeBron is best best I saw. Jerry Lucas best player I never saw. The state championships they won. Regular season games they won. Numbers they put up are almost unequaled. And their game to game competition was almost unequaled.

[WHSgrad2000]

Gary Trent played at Waverly Holiday Classic before it was a county tournament
OJ Mayo played I think at Zane Trace Tip-off Classic
Andrew Wiggins' HHS team played an exhibition game vs. Marietta College's JV at Point Pleasant (WV) High School.

[danicalifornia]

Gary Trent played at Waverly Holiday Classic before it was a county tournament
OJ Mayo played I think at Zane Trace Tip-off Classic
Andrew Wiggins' HHS team played an exhibition game vs. Marietta College's JV at Point Pleasant (WV) High School.

Mayo’s first Ohio HS game was against Paint Valley at Zane Trace. Bill Walker was insane in HS too.

The mid to late 2000’s had a pretty special run of talent come through the Chillicothe Tip Off’s and Holiday Tournament, with Jared Sullinger vs Yancey Gates at Chillicothe, Byron Mullins vs Gates at OU-Chillicothe with William Buford being there on the same day.

Ohio’s HS talent was unreal for that 10 year span. It is still good, but it was ridiculous for a bit.

[PopeSnoopDogThe1st]

Crazy to think that OJ Mayo, Bill Walker & Patrick Patterson came from the same little area in Huntington at the same time.....

I remember watching Mayo play Ashland Regional tournament when he was at Rose Hill as a 7th grader...He was unbelievable, as was Walker

[PopeSnoopDogThe1st]

Along with Smith on the girls side (who is in a class all to herself) Lewis from Oak Hill was really good as was Amy Hughes from Wheelersburg...they were fun to watch...

[PopeSnoopDogThe1st]

I also remember my Dad taking me to the High School Championships when I was in Jr high....I got to watch Jimmy Jackson lead Toledo Macomber to the D1 state title in 89...

[transplant]

From southeastern Ohio, for me id have to go with Dante Jackson. He was head and shoulders above everyone else. I watched him a few times in his high school career. Best game was when they played Logan Elm. He and Tyler Evans went bucket for bucket that game. Evans ended up going to Findlay university and hitting the game winner in their Championship game one year. Dante obviously went on to have a solid college career and he is now an assistant at Xavier.

As far as other high school players... When they had the coaxil (sp) classic in Columbus. Oak hill academy always had high profile players. Guys like Kevin Lyde (Temple) Damian Wilkins (Dominique's nephew, NC State) Also watched a Brookhaven team with Lavender and Foust (Oklahoma) dominate Shelden Williams (Duke) and his high school team.

Also would like to add that Cam Thoroughman in high school was a special talent too. Knee injuries and other issues made him not the same player at WVU, but in high school, he dominated. One of the best high school games was watching him and Nick Aldridge from South Webster go at it. Nick was also a dominate high school player. Both could take over a game and score at will if they wanted to.

[Ironman92]

From southeastern Ohio, for me id have to go with Dante Jackson. He was head and shoulders above everyone else. I watched him a few times in his high school career. Best game was when they played Logan Elm. He and Tyler Evans went bucket for bucket that game. Evans ended up going to Findlay university and hitting the game winner in their Championship game one year. Dante obviously went on to have a solid college career and he is now an assistant at Xavier.

As far as other high school players... When they had the coaxil (sp) classic in Columbus. Oak hill academy always had high profile players. Guys like Kevin Lyde (Temple) Damian Wilkins (Dominique's nephew, NC State) Also watched a Brookhaven team with Lavender and Foust (Oklahoma) dominate Shelden Williams (Duke) and his high school team.

Also would like to add that Cam Thoroughman in high school was a special talent too. Knee injuries and other issues made him not the same player at WVU, but in high school, he dominated. One of the best high school games was watching him and Nick Aldridge from South Webster go at it. Nick was also a dominate high school player. Both could take over a game and score at will if they wanted to.

I also watched Thoroughman get thoroughly frustrated his senior year in the sectional finals due to being hounded by 6’1 Robbie Barnett of Whiteoak. Made him quit that night. Fouled out in the 3rd quarter.

[burgfella69]

Andrew Wiggins, Ironton Classic

[se-alum]

Dante Jackson vs Upper Sandusky and Jon Diebler at the Schott at the Play by Play Classic is the single greatest performance I’ve ever seen. That dude just utterly dominated every aspect of the game and nearly had a quadruple double (one assist and steal short) in a massive win for McClain.

Dante would definitely be up there for me in our district, but Lebron is the best I’ve seen in person, OJ Mayo would be 2nd, followed by Jarron Cumberland from Wilmington.

Probably the most enjoyable high school game I ever watched. There were a lot of people that thought Jackson should get an OSU offer over Diebler, and I agreed. Jackson was a much better all around player than Diebler.

Dante was the best HS player I was able to watch on a regular basis.

[bbjunky81]

In terms of SE Ohio over the last couple decades the ones I've seen personally that were very talented were:

(in no particular order)
- Dante Jackson from Greenfield
- Jake Kretzer from Waverly
- Cam Miller from Wheelersburg
- Drew Spradlin from Wheelersburg
- Andrew Burleson from Wheelersburg
- Waginger from South Webster
- Aldridge from South Webster
- Loop from South Webster
- Gagai from Ironton
- Swingle from Paint Valley
- Hitchens from Chillicothe
- Ibi Watson from Athens
- Joe Burrow from Athens (just a superb athlete)
- Kyrie Allison from Portsmouth
- Van Horn from Fairland


There were TONS more that were terrific SE Ohio players, but these one stood out above the rest for me. I'm also sure I'm forgetting a few as these were just off the top of my head.