WALKER, LEE TWO OF WPIAL’S BEST
Neil Walker and Sean Lee are known for different sports. But unknowingly, they have this thing for following one another.
Lee, an Upper St. Clair High School graduate, was the Post-Gazette High School Athlete of the Year in 2005, one year after Walker won the award for a second time at Pine-Richland.
Walker started his first full year in Major League Baseball in April of 2010. Lee started his first NFL season later the same year.
Then a few weeks ago, on April 20, Walker announced his retirement from baseball. Six days later, Lee retired from the NFL as a member of the Dallas Cowboys.
But Walker and Lee should also follow each other one more time into Western Pennsylvania high school lore — as two of the best allaround athletes to play in the WPIAL. Ever.
I don’t need to tell you what Walker did in major league baseball and how Lee excelled with the Cowboys, making the Pro Bowl twice and All-Pro once. Their pro careers validated their athletic abilities, but let us not forget how exceptional the two were in multiple sports in their high school days.
Walker was a standout receiverdefensive back in football and made the prestigious Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 in football. Some say he could’ve been a Division I college football player. But people forget he was pretty fair on the basketball court, too. He was an all-section pick in basketball as a junior after averaging 16.7 points game, but gave up the sport as a senior to get ready for baseball season.
Lee was good enough in basketball at Upper St. Clair that he made the P-G Fabulous 5 as a senior. He played everything from center and forward to point guard at Upper St. Clair and as a senior averaged 21 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He also had 49 3-pointers as a senior and scored 1,380 career points, leading Upper St. Clair to a WPIAL title in 2005, clinching the title-game win with a blocked shot in the closing seconds against Mt. Lebanon.
As for Walker, I’ll never forget before his junior football season, after a preseason practice, I was having a conversation with Pine-Richland standout senior quarterback Kevin McCabe about his upcoming season. He brought up Walker without prompting.
“You watch,” McCabe said. “We’ve got this Neil Walker. He’ll turn out to be one of the best athletes in the WPIAL.”
Right on, Kevin.
Heck, I still remember the PineRichland cheerleaders saying on a radio station that Walker’s nickname at the school was “God” because he was so liked and talented.
I also still remember the first time I saw Lee in a high school athletic event. He was a freshman playing in an AAU basketball tournament in Solon, Ohio, with some other WPIAL players. Some athletes have “it.” I’m not exactly sure what “it” is, but it was obvious that Lee had “it.” By the time he was a senior, he was a standout at running back and defensive back for Upper St. Clair, but major colleges didn’t really start recruiting him hard until that senior season.
When Walker and Lee retired from pro sports, everyone from media members to other players sang their praises for what they were as “people” during their careers. That also goes back to their high school days. In almost 40 years of covering high schools sports in Western Pennsylvania, I’d say Walker and Lee were A-plus guys in high school. Their easy-to-like personalities and affableness came through in their teenage years, as well as their grittiness, drive and determination on the fields and courts.
When I called Lee in November for some comments on making the all-time Post-Gazette Fabulous 22, one of the first things he asked me was, “How’s your son doing?”
I told him I had three sons. “The one I met on the field after the North Hills game my senior year?” Lee said.
How in the world would he remember that moment from 16 years ago? But that’s Sean Lee.
Then there was a situation with Walker his senior year that said so much about him as a person and standup attitude. Walker was projected to be a first-round pick in the MLB draft, but hadn’t played in a few games. It was newsworthy. People wondered why?
His coach, Jeff Rojik, said it was for breaking team rules. The Post-Gazette was going to run a few paragraphs the next day, saying Walker was suspended for violation of team rules. But there were other rumors about the suspension. Walker called me and said, “Mr. White, I want to talk and tell everyone what happened.”
Walker wanted his story told in the newspaper.
“I went to a party Saturday night and there was alcohol involved,” Walker said. “The police showed up and I didn’t pass a Breathalyzer test. I made a bad decision. I’m not going to try and hide any more about what happened. I made an adult decision, I have to face the adult consequences.
“I just want to send an apology out to my family first, my teammates for letting them down and any friends and fans.”
We ran Walker’s comments in the newspaper the next day. That said all you needed to know about Neil Walker the person.
Over the years, I have sometimes been asked to give motivational talks to groups of teenagers. I use Walker’s story as an example of how a teenage kid that was so revered could own up to a mistake and want to tell his story to the public. It’s a great example of how we all need to sometimes say, “My bad.”
But with Neil Walker and Sean Lee, there was so much good to remember. Long live their legacies.
WPIAL and NFL
One year after the WPIAL had five players taken in the NFL draft, only one player who graduated from a WPIAL school was selected this year. Pitt defensive back Damar Hamlin, a Central Catholic graduate, was picked in the sixth round. (Robert Hainsey played through his sophomore year at Gateway, but spent his junior and senior years at IMG Academy in Florida. He was taken in the third round out of Notre dame)
Since 2000, this is only the third time the WPIAL has had only one player taken in the draft. In 2015, South Allegheny’s Jesse James (Penn State) was taken in the fifth round and Chartiers Valley’s Eric Kush (California, Pa.) was taken in the sixth round in 2013.
But Hamlin is the fifth Central Catholic player drafted since 2000. The others are Stefen Wisniewski (second round in 2011), Jeff Dugan (seventh round in 2004), Bob Slowikowski (sixth round in 2002) and Marc Bulger (sixth round in 2000).
Oliastro for the record?
The Riverside baseball team entered the week with an 8-5 record and had five games left on its schedule. The Panthers were in good shape to make the WPIAL playoffs. That means coach Dan Oliastro has a good chance to reach the WPIAL record for wins by a baseball coach.
Oliastro is in his 53rd season and entered the week with 652 wins. The record is 655 wins by Hopewell’s Joe Colella, who won 655 games from 1964-2011.