Two first rounders from Piscataway High this year in Kyle Wilson and Davis to go along with Malcom Jenkins (Saints) from last year. A big public school in Central Jersey that's always stocked with big time talent: Dallas Jackson Rivals High Senior Analyst Piscataway football coach Dan Higgins knows he's had plenty of talent in his 20 years at the New Jersey school. His handful of state championships trophies, dozens of college recruits and a few alums in the NFL tell him that. But when he found out his program was the first high school to have two former players selected in the first round of the same NFL Draft, even he was stunned. "Wow, just wow," he said. "That is pretty crazy." Thursday night in New York City, that distinction became a reality. Both former Rutgers tackle Anthony Davis (Piscataway Class of 2007) and former Boise State cornerback Kyle Wilson (Class of 2005) were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. Anthony Davis, shown here as a senior in high school, was taken No. 11 in the NFL Draft. Davis, the 6-foot-5 323-pound offensive tackle, was selected No. 11 by the San Francisco 49ers while Wilson, who measured at the combine 5-10, 194-pounds, was selected shortly after at No. 29 by the New York Jets. Those picks come a year after Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins (Piscataway Class of 2006) was selected No. 14 overall by the Saints - meaning Piscataway High is just the seventh school since 1990 to have first-round picks in successive years, too. It's enough to make Piscataway, a public school in Central Jersey with roughly 2,000 students, be known as NFL High. "If you would have told me I had three (first-round) NFL Draft picks on the same field I would have laughed in your face," Higgins said. "I mean, honestly, I knew they were all special and would play college ball, but this is something else." Higgins did laugh when someone tried to give him credit for the achievement. He credits the kids - and the Jersey attitude. His job, he says, is just to give them the tools to succeed and point them in the right direction. "Jersey is crazy," he said. "You compete for everything. Compete for a parking spot, compete for girls, compete to compete. It's all a competition. The kids like Malcolm, A.D. and Kyle love to compete. It makes them happy. "All I have to do is make sure they are doing what they are supposed to." Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Farrell scoffs at the idea that Higgins - an active duty police officer - is doing little more than bringing out the ball bag. "Coach Higgins does a great job developing kids and most importantly keeps their heads on straight," Farrell said. "With private schools like Don Bosco, St. Peter's and Bergen Catholic getting most of the accolades and able to take kids from any place, Piscataway being a public school has to develop kids from its area and have been successful." Higgins, even as he kept his brash New Jersey attitude about him, was glowing with praise for the players and the area. "Seeing Malcom make play after play in the league has been amazing," he said. "Now with A.D. and Kyle headed there too, it's crazy." Crazy? Maybe. But, not a complete surprise to everyone. Farrell was able to see Davis in high school and thought he was a no-doubter, ranking him the No. 68 overall player in the country his senior year. "Davis was an obvious stud," Farrell said. "He was a Rivals100 kid so we knew he had first-round potential." Farrell, like Higgins, thinks Davis' attitude will help him in the NFL. Magnificent Seven Seven high schools have had players drafted in consecutive first rounds since 1990. Long Beach (Calif.) Poly 1990, Mark Carrier, Chicago Bears 1991, Leonard Russell, New England Patriots LaGrange (Ga.) High 1995, Tyrone Poole, Carolina Panthers 1996, Walt Harris, Chicago Bears Belle Glade (Fla.) Glades Central 1997, Reidel Anthony, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1998, Fred Taylor, Jacksonville Jaguars La Mesa (Calif.) Helix 2005, Alex Smith, San Francisco 49ers 2006, Reggie Bush, New Orleans Saints Cleveland Glenville 2006, Donte Whitner, Buffalo Bills 2007, Ted Ginn Jr., Miami Dolphins Tulsa (Okla.) Booker T. Washington 2007, Robert Meachem, New Orleans Saints 2008, Felix Jones, Dallas Cowboys Piscataway (N.J.) High 2009, Malcolm Jenkins, New Orleans Sains 2010, Anthony Davis, San Francisco 49ers 2010, Kyle Wilson, New York Jets "He has a chip on his shoulder," Farrell said. "He thought he was being undervalued in the rankings and used it to drive him harder." Higgins says the attitude, that some still question, is a positive for Davis. "All the negative stuff people say about A.D. fuels him," Higgins said. "People saying he has a bad attitude, or he is overweight, telling him what he can't do drives him. "He is from Jersey, he has to be tough." Wilson, meanwhile, was overlooked from the start - possibly because he shared the secondary with Jenkins, someone Higgins said was "destined to be an NFL player." Wilson was just a Rivals.com two-star player. He chose to go to Boise State (over offers from Delaware and Rutgers) and developed into one of the fastest rising prospects before the draft. Higgins said that he was more shocked by the lack of recruiting for Wilson than his ability to climb draft boards. "For some reason, maybe because Malcolm was back there too, but Kyle went under the radar," Higgins said. "But he was always one of the most mature and grounded kids on the team." Another former Piscataway player, Brandon Renkart, also is the NFL. He, however, got there the hard way - first as a walk-on at Rutgers, then as an undrafted free agent. That toughness is a sense of pride for people in the state and one that is shared by Higgins, who is not your typical high school coach. Higgins works four-on and four-off as a full time police officer in the area as well as his duties as the football and track coach at Piscataway High. "I just never got into doing traffic jobs or other things cops do to make money," he said. "It isn't my style." While the success for Piscataway is something welcomed by Higgins, he points out that his school isn't the only place in the Garden State having success. "There is always talent here," he said. "Sometimes it gets so spread out to colleges that people don't realize it." But people are beginning to. New Jersey had one player taken in the first round each year from 2005-2008 - then a stunning seven last year, led by Virginia Tech lineman and Plainfield, N.J., grad Eugene Monroe, at No. 8 by the Jaguars. "Jersey has been undervalued for years," Farrell said. "The area is a wealth of talent with some very well respected trainers who work well with preparing guys for the NFL." One needs to look no further than Piscataway High for that.
New Jersey is forcing itself into the top tier of college recruiting. It's still a step below Florida, Texas and California but it's working it's way up. If Schiano could sure up his recruiting of top-level, in-state talent than Rutgers would be one scary program.
The parochial powerhouse High School of NJ has always been Don Bosco, with Bergen Catholic and St Peters Prep (my alma mater) rounding up the top 3. I've heard that Piscataway is moving up the Public school charts for football. Not familiar with any other public school that's a football powerhouse besides Bayonne. However, Garfeild high has gotten lucky with a couple of prominent players, obviously our very own Wayne Chrebet, Miles Austin, and Luis Castillo (not Mets) EDIT: Just read this line when I went back to reread the whole article - Damn I was on the money....
^ They forgot to mention St. Joseph's Regional (Montvale) which is the other perennial parochial NJ powerhouse. Bosco, Bergen (my alma mater) and Joe's are all separated by about 15 minutes in Bergen county. No offense but Bayonne is far from a state public school powerhouse in football. The real state powerhouses in NJ public school football are by region: Wayne Hills (North), Phillipsburg (North Central), Piscataway (Central), Middletown South (Central Shore), Cherokee (South), Washington Twp (South), Absegami (South), Shawnee (South), Delsea (South), and a few others in each region that change from year to year.
Let's not forget to mention our very own 2009 NFL DROTY, Brian Cushing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cushing
Wayne Hills - you nailed that one. I totally forgot about them. Washington (which one - there are 4!) - like by Pensauken, NJ off Rt 42? My cousin lives there - I didn't know that. I am thinking "where's Toms River?" - but that's baseball... I think back to taking the God damned train and Path to get to school for 3 years and it is probably why I have turned down every job offer in the city I ever got. My only regret in life was not playing football. I should have. I could have been a Mawae.
Yeah there are way too many Washingtons or Wash Twp's in the state of NJ lol. The powerhouse one is the one you're referencing way down in South Jersey by Pennsauken. Wayne Hills had Greg Olsen (coach's son) who was another NJ first rounder a few years ago.
There were seven Jersey kids taken in the first round last year if you guys remember. Eugene Monroe (Plainfield), BJ Raji (Washington Township), Knowshon Moreno (Middletown South), Malcolm Jenkins (P-Way), Brian Cushing (Don Bosco), Donald Brown (Red Bank Catholic), and Kenny Britt (Bayonne). A key there is that there were even a few guys there from South Jersey, usually way behind North and Central Jersey for High School talent. NJ is definitely in that 2nd/3rd tier for HS players, behind the big three (Cali, Texas, and Florida) and just a bit after Penn and Ohio.
And don't forget Jerome Murphy, Corey Wootton, and Jason Worilds are three more Jersey guys that could get taken tonight.
What year did you graduate from Prep? I would've went there if I didn't move, I'm originally from Bayonne. Pretty remarkable the the players the Piscataway program has put out, especially being a public school. Pretty interesting to see Boise St. recruiting across the country in Jersey.
And Louisiana and Georgia too (states 6-10). NJ is at the top of the third tier (states 11-15) with Illinois, Alabama and a few others.