Alumni of Your High School

I went to a prestigious and storied high school in Hawaii, the same one that my mother had gone to, and the same one my family had gone to for many years.  It was a great experience, and the student body was full of amazing people that went on to amazing things.  Past alumni had founded AOL, and one even became President of the United States of America.  But we're here to talk about sports, and two of our more recent athletic stars have been famous for very different reasons.

Michelle Wie was a star almost before she was a star.  It's hard to fathom what could have been, and in a day and age where expectations often defy reality, she did not live up to those expectations.  I think this, combined with the complete dearth of coverage that Women's Golf gets really sent her value plummeting.  It's not that she was even bad - She's won a major, after all.  Also, as a tangent, I think it's incredibly strange that women's golf doesn't get more coverage.  It's not really that dissimilar to men's golf is it?  I mean Michelle Wie was playing in men's events and being somewhat competitive.

In a more cruel twist of fate, Manti Te'o was famous for his fake girlfriend.  I mean of all things, really.  By all reports, the young man was and remains a good person, but just caught up in a lie that will forever follow him around.  I guess his play hasn't held up as well, but he still remains one of my favorite high school and college players.  This dual with Junior Seau was most certainly made a cultural throwback to their Samoan heritage, and it serves to me as a sad reminder of the physical damages of football (CTE, etc) and the emotional damages of football ("Ms. Lennay Kekua").