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Smackdown: Bucs' Best High School Athlete

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By ANWAR RICHARDSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 7, 2007

Smackdown Results: Offense 8, Defense 5

Before playing sports was about favorable draft positions, contract negotiations, media criticism and job instability, professional athletes enjoyed the purity of high school sports.

It was there athletes played simply because they loved sports. They were neighborhood heroes who wanted to win a state championship. The majority of people in their community wanted them to become successful. Their friends loved them for who they were, not because of any athletic ability. Meanwhile, proud parents created scrapbooks to save every radiant article about their child.

This week's Smackdown takes a step back to those wholesome days to determine which Tampa Bay player was the ''Best High School Athlete.'' The competition is between right guard Davin Joseph, one of the best wrestlers in state history, and cornerback Phillip Buchanon, one of the finest multiple sports athletes from Florida.

Davin Joseph, Right Guard

While looking for an activity to occupy his time after football season, Joseph decided to try wrestling as a freshman at Hallandale High in south Florida.

He weighed 310 pounds and initially was unable to reach the 275-pound heavyweight maximum. Joseph eventually did make weight, barely missing the state tournament in what would be his least successful season.

As a sophomore, Joseph finished second in the district tournament, was a regional champion and placed fourth at state. Joseph was 35-3 that season, but was just warming up.

Joseph was 48-0 as a junior and won the Class 2A state championship. He also competed in the National High School Coaches Association National Wrestling Tournament in Birmingham and placed eighth in the nation. Although Joseph was a standout football player, he started receiving scholarship offers to wrestle in college.

''His work ethic is the best I've ever seen out of a high school kid,'' former wrestling coach Allen Held said. ''He was dominant. No matter where he went, people knew who he was. He was a heavyweight who could wrestle, but he moved like a lightweight on the mat.''

Joseph's athletic domination continued his senior year when he was ranked as the 19th best guard in the nation by Rivals.com in 2002. He also was an All-State pick, plus named Broward County's Defensive Player of the Year.

Additionally, Joseph was 42-0 in his final year as a wrestler and never lost a point that season. In Joseph's state championship match, he pinned his opponent in 58 seconds.

Joseph received football scholarship offers from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota and Missouri, and he was told he could wrestle in college if he wanted. After deciding to attend Oklahoma, Joseph was unable to do both, but finished as one of the best two-sport athletes in state history.

''I was kind of doing it for fun. It wasn't something that I had planned on having as a career. It was just something I ended up being good at,'' Joseph said. ''I could have wrestled in college, but football was the main thing. I had more of a future in football. Now you are starting to see a lot of guys who wrestled in college have a future in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but back then, it wasn't an option.

''I like where I'm at right now. I like living in Tampa Bay. I like the guys I'm around. It's hard to pass it up, but anytime you can, you should play as many sports as possible in high school and have fun.''

Phillip Buchanon, Cornerback

Larry Gary, Buchanon's head football coach at Lehigh High in Fort Myers, and Eric McFee, his basketball coach, agree on one thing when it comes to the former NFL first-round draft pick.

''I actually thought he was better at baseball than football,'' Gary said.

Buchanon played football, basketball and ran track at Lehigh, but baseball was the sport everyone thought he would excel in.

As a sophomore, Buchanon had a .410 batting average and followed that by hitting .453 as a junior. Buchanon was a second-team All-State selection that season, which is a major accomplishment considering Florida's rich baseball history. Most expected him to play baseball professionally.

Buchanon, who ran the 60-yard dash in 6.2 seconds, injured his wrist and was unable to play baseball his senior year. But he still was offered a $500,000 contract by the Cincinnati Reds, which he turned down to play football at the University of Miami.

''A lot of (Major League) teams asked if I got drafted, would I sign with them, and I said I didn't know as opposed to saying yes,'' Buchanon said. ''At that point, I loved football so much that they [scouts] told me to give up football for baseball and I didn't want to do that. In Fort Myers, all we knew was football.''

In addition to being an exceptional football and baseball player, Buchanon also averaged double digits in points as Lehigh's point guard.

''Phillip was a playmaker,'' McFee said. ''If you're down and need something to happen, he created the play. He was always even keeled, calm and tough. To show you how lousy of a coach I was, one day my assistant pointed out to me that Phillip was doing everything with his left hand. I called him over and asked why and found out he had been playing two games with a broken wrist. That is just how tough he was.''

Buchanon, who also was a track standout, said his toughest basketball assignment was guarding former Mariner High guard Teddy Dupay. Even though he successfully held his district rival to 23 points, which would have been an accomplishment if Dupay's teammate Noel West had not scored 53, Buchanon does not regret choosing football over basketball.

''The first time he [Dupay] got the ball, he had a nice crossover and went over halfcourt about three or four steps, pulled up and made a 3-pointer,'' Buchanon said. ''Then he came down and hit three or four more shots and I was like 'What the heck?' I was just in awe because he was so quick and so good. I didn't know he was going to be that good ... But I played everything, and for me, it was just fun. I was good at doing what I did, and even though everyone thought I would be a baseball player, I do love playing football.''

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