FOOTBALL

Big 33 matters to some players

By Jeff Rice

Three years ago, Garry Gilliam sat in the stands and watched fellow Milton Hershey School student Abe Koroma play in the Big 33 Football Classic.

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• State squad turning up heat in practice

“Ever since then I’m like, ‘I want to play in that game,’” Gilliam said.

Saturday, when Pennsylvania meets Ohio at 7 p.m. in Hersheypark Stadium, Gilliam will get his wish. It doesn’t matter how many passes the Penn State-bound, 6-foot-6 tight end catches or how many touchdowns the pass-happy Pennsylvania attack puts on the board in a game that’s averaged nearly 63 combined points during the last four years.

What matters is that one of the state’s best football traditions still means something to at least a few of the kids who play in it.

Not so long ago, the Big 33 game was the event of the summer. The game was played at the end of July, close enough to the start of the college season to prime fans and far enough removed from the end of the school year that the all-stars were brimming with youthful energy from practices to kickoff.

And it was those stars who made the show. Ricky Watters. Rocket Ismail. Ron Powlus. Orlando Pace. Marvin Harrison. Curtis Enis. LaVar Arrington. Bob Sanders. Ben Roethlisberger. Steve Breaston. The best players the two states had to offer, who would go on to college and NFL stardom or join the still-growing list of Big 33 alumni with Super Bowl rings.

Today, the Pennsylvania and Ohio rosters are still littered with top players, many of whom are headed to Penn State and Ohio State to continue the rivalry at the next level. But an increasing number of the top prospects in those state are politely saying “No, thank you” to the invite or cannot accept it because they are already enrolled in college classes.

Today’s blue-chip prospects want their careers to start yesterday. They are visiting campuses and committing to coaches earlier, graduating from high school six months earlier, burying their heads in their new playbooks while their classmates are planning the prom. The quicker they get to college, the quicker they can get on the field, and the quicker they can get to the NFL. You can argue if the ferocious pace is good for the sport, at all levels, but it hasn’t been good for the Big 33.

Organizers did what they could do — they moved the game to the middle of June, squeezing it between high school graduations and the start of the summer semester. Whatever stars weren’t already in college could still play, then pack their bags. But each year, a few marquee names pass up a week in Hershey. This year, Scranton lineman Eric Shrive, arguably the key recruit in Penn State’s massive incoming class and Cardinal O’Hara’s Tom Savage, Rutgers’ quarterback of the future, did just that. Ohio State-bound stud linebacker Dorian Bell of Gateway had already played in two all-star games, including the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in December, and was ineligible for a third.

Each player has his own reasons, and most are understandable (Schrive's high school graduation, for example, was Thursday), but the end result takes some of the shine off a week that goes well beyond the football field. Even with ever-growing costs and a lack of major sponsorship, the Big 33 has raised nearly $4 million for academic scholarships during the past 25 years. Its “buddy program,” which matches players with young people with exceptional needs, offers the young stars important perspective and reminds them of their growing status of role model. Each year, nearly 70 players get to share these experiences, develop friendships with old rivals or future foes and finish off their accomplished high school careers in fine style.

Or, in some cases, fulfill a long-awaited dream.

“It’s not actually hit me yet that I’m in the Big 33 game,” Gilliam said. “And I guess it won’t until the actual game.”

Hopefully, when that moment hits Gilliam, another future star will be somewhere in the stands, watching and hoping for his chance to play under the lights.

And hopefully when he gets that chance, he’ll take it.

Jeff Rice can be reached at 231-4609.