Most Terrifying High School Athletes of All Time

High school sports are the end of the road for most athletes. After winning a varsity letter or two, they call it a career, and nobody remembers much about their playing days. 

But sometimes, high school sports have rare athletes we never forget. They look like men playing against boys or women playing against girls, with size and skills that seem superhuman.

These are the most terrifying high school athletes of all time.

Note: Only athletes who played interscholastic sports were eligible, meaning they had to play for an actual high school when they were a teenager, not just club or professional sports.

High school: Tulare Union High School (Tulare, California)

Sports: Track and Field, Football

Graduation year: 1948

Bottom line: Can you imagine if an athlete today accomplished what Bob Mathias did at his age? 

Tulare Union High’s Mathias tried out for and made the 1948 U.S.Olympic team and shocked the entire world by winning a decathlon gold medal at just 17 years old, which made him the youngest track and field gold medal winner ever. 

Mathias repeated as the Olympic gold medalist in 1952, where Tulare Union teammate Sim Iness also won a gold medal in the discus. Mathias also played running back for Stanford and led them to the 1952 Rose Bowl, which was also the first nationally televised football game. 

High school: Union-Whitten High School (Union, Iowa)

Sport: Basketball

Graduation year: 1969

Bottom line: The most well-known girls basketball player in Iowa history, Denise Long averaged a stunning 69.6 points as a senior at Union-Whitten High School and once scored 111 points in a single game. 

The San Francisco Warriors selected her in the 13th round of the 1969 NBA draft. It was a  publicity stunt by owner Franlin Meuli, but she remains the only woman drafted in NBA history. 

Long played one season in a pro league set up by the Warriors and got to meet Wilt Chamberlain, who joked about her eclipsing his 100-point mark. Her reply? “I didn’t mean to, though.” 

High school: Fort Osage High School (Independence, Missouri)

Sport: Baseball

Graduation year: 1998

Bottom line: Albert Pujols did not get as much acclaim as other high school athletes, but the three-time National League Most Valuable Player deserves to be here.

Pujols was terrifying in the two seasons he played for Fort Osage High School, but that was for a specific reason, and one stat shows how much he scared opposing teams. His senior season, Pujos walked 55 times in 88 at-bats. This was out of respect for his talents and also out protest. Most coaches believed Pujols, who was born in the Dominican Republic, was older than he said.

For his part, Pujols hit eight home runs in the 33 at-bats he did have. 

High school: Booker T. Washington High School (Pensacola, Florida)

Sport: Football

Graduation year: 1991

Bottom line: The fear opposing running backs and quarterbacks felt the night before facing future Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks in high school must have been paralyzing. 

There may never have been a high school football player who hit harder than Booker T. Washington High’s Brooks, who hit the football scene in Pensacola, Florida, just years after running back Emmitt Smith played for rival Escambia High. 

Brooks was selected to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s All-Century Team in 2007. He also won a national championship at Florida State, a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.