Watching elite athletes compete during their high school years is always a delight, but watching them excel in completely different sports is something else.
A clip of Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto made the rounds on Twitter this week, playing high school football at Carl Albert High in Oklahoma.
Phillies Twitter member Jonny Heller dredged up the old video from The Oklahoman's archive, which shows Realmuto executing a pretty slick fake run play-into-bootleg touchdown for the win in double overtime.
The real highlight, though, is the sideline interview afterwards:
It's not surprising that he begins the interview by explaining how good the opposing team was. Classy move from Realmuto to start.
And then breaking down the play itself - called "117" - and explaining that they'd previously failed to convert with that play on a 4th & 2 is such a cool detail.
MLB
It also shows that Realmuto's coach had the ultimate faith in his quarterback to get the job done in crunch time.
Realmuto's MaxPreps page, which is still live, shows a pretty productive senior year as a dual-threat QB. Realmuto completed 111 of 187 passes for 1,937 yds, 20 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He also ran 227 times for 1,412 yards and 25 touchdowns.
That's solid!
Of course, his batting average during baseball season his senior year (.595) was higher than his completion percentage (.594), and he hit 28 home runs and drove in 119 RBI, so it's safe to say Realmuto made the right call.
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