Tuesday, June 17, 2008 11:13 PM CDT
Jameel High considers EIU family legacy
By Brian Nielsen
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
This is no longer a toddler who used to get on the field after a football game to greet former Eastern Illinois running back Willie High’s giant-sized grin.
Instead of his dad’s No. 32, Jameel High was wearing a No. 22 jersey Tuesday at EIU’s camp for high school football players.
But hey, it was Mattoon green, similar to what his dad, Willie, wore while setting touchdown records for Mattoon High School before going to Eastern and running for 4,231 yards that still rank second on the Panthers’ career rushing list.
Jameel High is doing his ball carrying for green-clad Kankakee Bishop McNamara after competing in middle school sports at Mattoon.
And yes, time has gone that quickly that Willie’s little boy is now heading into his senior year of high school and looking for a college of his own.
This was not just some visit to the old stomping ground of his father, an industrial engineer living in Kankakee.
“I’m just here today and will be back up to Kankakee for lifting and working out,” High said. “I can’t really stay here to visit.”
High has already been to camps at the University of Kansas and Western Michigan.
One of the one-day visitors at the Eastern Illinois camp running Monday through Thursday, he also plans to attend similar events at Central Michigan, Southern Illinois, Akron and Louisville.
Kansas coaches have told him they would have someone at one of his games this coming season.
This does not mean you should rule out the running back/defensive back following his father’s footsteps into O’Brien Stadium.
“Honestly, I love Eastern,” High said. “I love everything about it. I grew up here. [EIU] Coach [Bob] Spoo and [assistant] coach [Roy] Wittke, my dad still talks about them all the time. He says they were the best coaches he ever had.”
Now Willie does some fatherly coaching.
“He’ll watch films and tell me what I did wrong,” Jameel High said. “I’ve watched his films too of when he played.”
One way or another, the son has done something right.
“My first five games last year were over 100 yards and I had 11 or 12 touchdowns,” High said of his junior season at McNamara. “Then I had an ankle injury. I didn’t really get back until the last game.”
Listed at 6-foot, 170 pounds last season, High gives this father/son comparison: “I’m faster. I run a 4.4. But his vertical is better.”
Willie High used his leaping and athletic ability to help lead a rare winning Mattoon boys’ basketball team and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1990 Charleston Holiday Tournament.
Jameel’s winter sport is wrestling.
Where he winds up in bragging rights at the dinner table of a family reunion that includes his father Willie who starred as an Eastern Illinois running back, uncle Robert High who did the same as an Indiana State defensive back and uncle Jermaine who played wide receiver for a Western Illinois team that was once ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division I-AA remains to be seen.
But on this June day, it sure brought back some good memories just to see a jersey with the name High on the back running the football on Eastern’s practice field.
Brian Nielsen is sports editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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