FOR USE AS DESIRED
            NFL-75                10/5/04

LONG BEACH POLY HIGH SCHOOL IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
HAS MOST NFL PLAYERS; CALIFORNIA LEADS ALL STATES;
MIAMI TOPS HOMETOWNS

Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California, with six players, tops the list of high schools with the most 2004 NFL players, the NFL announced today. 

Four high schools have five players each: Lake Highlands in Dallas, Texas; Melrose in Memphis, Tennessee; Mt. Carmel in Chicago, Illinois; and St. Augustine in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The totals are based on the 1,690-man 2004 NFL Kickoff Weekend rosters (September 9, 12-13).

NFL players from Kickoff rosters hail from 1,422 high schools in 48 states and the District of Columbia, seven foreign countries and one U.S. territory (American Samoa).

The NFL players from the five most productive schools have fond memories of their high school days, and respect for how the schools’ football programs are run:

• ARIZONA CARDINALS RB LARRY CROOM (Long Beach Poly):  “There are a lot of college players who come back and train there in the offseason.  That gives the high school players the chance to work out and compete against them.  You are pushing yourself to play at a higher level.  It makes you better. The coaches there have been in the NFL or Division I schools and they know what it takes to compete and make it at the next level.”
• PITTSBURGH STEELERS TE MATT CUSHING (Mt. Carmel):  “It starts at the top.  We got a ton of support from the whole program, all the way from the administration down to the coaches.  It’s really about the continuity with the coaching staff, because probably 80 to 90 percent of the coaches there now were there when I started in the early 1990s.  They are a tremendous staff.  They teach you the fundamentals of football, and I continue to use a lot of things that I learned from them today in the NFL.”
• CLEVELAND BROWNS K PHIL DAWSON (Lake Highland):  “What makes it special is that the community – where kids even beginning at the ages of four or five – grow up wanting to be Lake Highlands Wildcats.   There’s a true sense of community.”
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS WR CORTEZ HANKTON (St. Augustine):  “You know when you go there, the first thing you learn is that it is all about discipline.  You learn that at an early age coming in at the eighth grade or as a freshman.  You are definitely going to work hard and the coaching staff is going to put you through some things. That's why you see so many guys coming from St. Augustine who make it to the highest level.  If you are on the football team, you are expected to get a scholarship to college.  Not even just for athletics, but for academics.”
• NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS LB WILLIE MC GINEST (Long Beach Poly):  “It is just a good program, and it started way before my day.  A lot of players ended up going there.  The coaching staff, the area, the school – it is a good school as well – are the reasons the school is successful.  Long Beach does a great job of teaching those kids.  I think it starts in the peewee programs, too.  The kids come up and they just stay right in the system.”
• NEW YORK JETS DT DEWAYNE ROBERTSON (Melrose):  "When I was there, our head coach, TIM THOMPSON, had us doing drills that are used on the college level.  He treated us like college players, not like players on the high school level.  He said that his reasoning was that it helped put us ahead of the competition and got us ahead of the game.  By the time we got to college, we were not overwhelmed by the competition.” 
• SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS WR CEDRICK WILSON (Melrose):  “High school football is where it all started.  The love of the game, hanging out with your friends -- everything.  When I was at Melrose, we had four All-Americans and we eventually went on to win a state championship.  High school football is where I learned everything.  I don’t know where I would be without high school football.” 

HIGH SCHOOLS WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS

Fourteen high schools have four players each in the NFL this year.  Thirty-five high schools boast three NFLers, while 135 schools have two players:

HOME STATES:  California topped the list of states with most NFL players in 2004 (200), followed by Texas (174) and Florida (173):

STATES WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS

HOMETOWNS:  Miami, Florida heads the list of hometowns with the most NFL players (24), followed by Houston (22) and Dallas (18): 

HOMETOWNS WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS

AMERICAN SAMOA:  The United States territory of American Samoa has one NFL player, Kansas City DT JUNIOR SIAVII.  He attended Tafune High School in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

FOREIGN COUNTRIES:  Canada leads the list of foreign countries with NFL players (12), followed by Australia (2) and five countries with one player each:

FOREIGN COUNTRIES WITH NFL PLAYERS

NOTE:  To obtain a complete list of NFL players’ high schools, states and hometowns, plus rankings both alphabetically and numerically, contact the NFL Communications Department (212/450-2000) or log on to www.nflmedia.com.