Before LaVar Arrington became LaVar Arrington, I remember seeing him in a gym.

Not on a football field. Not making some ridiculous tackle. Not at Penn State. Not in the NFL.

On a basketball court.

I had to be around 11 or 12 years old, so this would’ve been somewhere around 1993. My dad used to take my brother and me everywhere to watch basketball. summer leagues, AAU games, whatever was going on around Western Pennsylvania.

That’s where I first remember seeing LaVar.

If my memory serves me right, he was only in ninth grade. And I couldn’t believe it.

 

He Didn’t Look Like a Ninth Grader

The first thing I remember I think he was rocking the baldy.

But what really stayed with me was the athleticism. This dude was jumping out of the gym. And we’re talking about somebody who hadn’t even become a household name in high school football yet.

I knew his name was LaVar. People around basketball knew there was this young kid who was an unbelievable athlete.

But I remember looking at him and thinking: He’s in ninth grade? He already looked like a grown man.

It wasn’t only that he could jump. Plenty of kids could jump.

LaVar’s body, explosiveness, power and movement were different. You could watch a gym full of athletes and your eyes naturally went toward him.

There are certain people you see when they’re young and immediately understand that God gave them something different.

LaVar was one of those people.

 

Then LaVar Became LaVar

A few years went by.

Suddenly, that kid I remembered seeing on a basketball court wasn’t simply some crazy athletic young dude anymore.

He was LaVar Arrington. North Hills. One of the best high school football players in America.

Penn State. Two-time first-team All-American. The Butkus Award. The Bednarik Award. The Lambert Award. Then the No. 2 overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.

And I would think back to that first time I saw him. It made perfect sense.

Because before I knew anything about what kind of football player LaVar Arrington was going to become, I knew what kind of athlete he was.

You couldn’t watch him at that age and think he was normal.

 

LaVar Could Have Played Anything

That’s what separates LaVar for me when we’re talking about the greatest athletes to ever come out of Western Pennsylvania.

I truly believe that dude could’ve picked almost any sport and figured out a way to dominate.

Football was obviously where everything came together. But watch the way he moved. Look at his explosiveness. Look at the size. Look at the coordination.

Then remember he was a legitimate basketball player too.

That’s why when people ask me about the best pure athletes I’ve seen from this area, I don’t have to think very long.

LaVar Arrington and Terrelle Pryor. That’s my top two.

And there’s everybody else.

 

LaVar and Terrelle Were Different

I’ve seen a lot of great athletes. I played against great players. I’ve watched Western Pennsylvania produce NFL players, NBA players, Division I stars and some of the best high school athletes in the country.

But LaVar and Terrelle are in a different category to me.

Terrelle was 6-foot-6 and could move like a guard. He could dominate a football game and then walk into a gym and look like a major Division I basketball player.

LaVar was built like somebody who should not have been able to move, jump and change direction the way he did.

That’s why I don’t just consider them two of the greatest athletes Western Pennsylvania has produced. I think LaVar Arrington and Terrelle Pryor have a legitimate argument as the two greatest pure athletes to ever come out of Pennsylvania.

People can debate that. Pennsylvania has produced an unbelievable list of athletes across generations and across sports.

But if we’re talking strictly about raw athletic ability — size, speed, power, explosiveness, coordination and the ability to excel in multiple sports — those are my two.

 

Sometimes You Can See It Before Everybody Else Does

That’s really why this memory has always stuck with me.

When I first saw LaVar, I wasn’t watching a Penn State All-American. I wasn’t watching the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft. Nobody was talking about his NFL career yet.

I was just a young kid sitting in a gym watching a young teenager.  But even then, you could see it.

That’s one of the beautiful things about growing up around Western Pennsylvania sports during that era. Sometimes you got to see greatness before it became greatness.

Before the recruiting rankings. Before the national television games. Before the awards. Before everybody in America knew the name.

I got to see LaVar Arrington when he was just this ridiculously athletic young kid with a baldy, bouncing around a basketball court.

I didn’t know exactly where his talent was going to take him. But I remember knowing one thing: That dude was different.

And a few years later, the rest of the country found out too.