La Crosse Tribune columnist Kirk Bey tells us today that UW-La Crosse standout receiver Scott Burnoski wants to play basketball for the Eagles this winter.
Could Burnoski, who had 72 catches for 931 yards and 14 touchdowns last year as a senior, help the 7-18 men’s basketball team? Perhaps. But he still has Arena Football possibilities to consider as well.
This isn’t a unique situation. In Division III you essentially have five years to play four, and occasionally student-athletes take the final year and play a different sport. The first name that came to mind was a local one for me, when Catholic U. point guard Sammy Briggs, a four-year starter, played football the next fall and helped the Cardinals reach the 1997 Division III playoffs as the No. 2 receiver.
Who else knows of players who have played four years of football and one year of basketball, or vice versa? Fill us in.
Abe Williams at NJCU played one year of football, dropped out of school for a few years and now has two years of basketball under his belt and two more years of eligibility left. Leonard Hughley played three years of Basketball and two of football at NJCU/JCSC.
Will Lasky played four years of standout basketball for F&M. While working for his teaching certificate, he then spent his ninth collegiate semester as a place-kicker for Lebanon Valley.
Being from the same hometown as Scott, if a little older, I took the liberty of asking for a scouting report from a friend who played with him in high school. Granted, things can change a lot over four years but here is what he had to say:
“As far as Burnoski goes, he’s an outstanding athlete who could be very good at basketball if he is serious about it. He was never as good as he could have been because he was lazy on defense and kind of picked his spots to try or
not to try. When he really tried, he was unreal. Incredible quickness and strength, and the aggressive mindset and competitiveness of a Ron Artest. That’s only when he’s trying though, but maybe he’s grown up a little over the
past four years. He is certainly athletic enough to play college ball.”
Without knowing a thing about their squad for next year, I would expect Scott to play the role of a defensive stopper-type role player. Four years away isn’t going to help a raw player fine-tune his ability, but his athletic skills will show on the effort and athleticism skills like defense and rebounding.
I think I am one of the few people who really, truly like Artest so I am letting that comparison slide 🙂
This wasn’t a basketball-football case, but UW-Platteville’s Merrill Brunson earned the 1999 NCAA III Player of the Year Award in basketball and then all-Midwest Region in baseball. After he finished his collegiate basketball playing career, he played basketball in England. He came back after a year, finished the semester he had remaining and played his final season of baseball. Another example is Joel Beard, who finished his eligibity in basketball in the 1997-98 national championship victory. He had one more semester of schooling and ended up throwing 16 touchdown passes as new coach Mike Emendorfer introduced the spread offense to a program previously running the wing-T.
Bill Schroeder was a D3 Track and Field legend at UW-La Crosse in the early 90’s. He used an extra fall semester to star for the UWL football team in I believe 93-94. Regardless he parlayed that one season into a pretty solid and lengthy NFL career.