PAIR OF CLARKSTON NUMBERS RETIRED
Trench warfare on the prep football field in Oakland County will never be the same, as Clarkston’s Rocco Spindler and Garrett Dellinger prepare to graduate early and leave for college next month.
To say goodbye in style to its beloved “Hog Brothers,” the Clarkston football program retired Spindler’s No. 50 and Dellinger’s No. 74, at the team’s banquet last week.
Spindler (6- 5, 315) is off to Notre Dame as an offensive guard and Dellinger (6-5, 285) is headed to defending National Champion LSU as an offensive tackle.
“They’re the most dynamic, impactful players we’ve had in our program, nobody else comes close when you look at what they did, game-in, game-out for four years,” longtime Clarkston head coach Kurt Richardson said.
“As a coaching staff, we felt putting their numbers on the shelf after they left, retiring those two jerseys, was a worthwhile gesture and very deserving.”
In terms of legacy in the high school ranks, the pair of linemen go down as all-time greats from the area’s gridiron scene, each garnering All-American honors and three straight All- State Dream Team selections.
They were both four-year, twoway starters at Clarkston, winning Division 1 state title rings as freshmen in 2017 and helping lead the Wolves back to the state finals the following season in 2018.
This year, the Wolves went 7-1 and won the OAA Red championship before bowing out to Grand Blanc 42-35 in the second round of the COVID-19 expanded playoff format.
“Rocco and Garrett were true greats, they were great players, great leaders and great young men,” Richardson.
“And like the real special ones do, they made everyone around them better.
“They made me a better coach. They did things here at Clarkston will probably never see again. It was pure domination.”
Texas Two-Step
She’ll be dancing her way down to the Lonestar State before too long.
Spikes, not hoops. Birmingham Marian dualthreat athlete Sarah Sylvester has committed to play volleyball at Texas Christian University.
The 6-3 junior is also a standout on the basketball floor for the Catholic League power Marian Mustangs girls hoops squad.
Her club team for volleyball is MiElite 17 Mizuno.
Sylvester’s teammate, fellow junior Ava Brizard committed to play volleyball at N.C. State earlier this fall.
Tweet of the Week
“Always bet on yourself,” — West Bloomfield football player Maxwell Hairston, committed to go play cornerback at Kentucky.