The Poly Five grew up, had kids, handled all the bumps on their separate roads.
They all got jobs, too. One of them kept his old one.
Marcedes Lewis is 37. It’s been 21 years, just seven weeks after the 9/11 attacks, that his rock-star Long Beach Poly High team met De La Salle.
Over 17,000 crammed into Long Beach’s Veterans Stadium, with bleachers on just one side, with ESPN cameras on the scene. De La Salle won, 29-15, to stretch its streak to 117 games. Nine players on that field would eventually reach the NFL, where Lewis still is.
He plays tight end for Green Bay, which meets San Francisco in an NFC divisional round playoff game on Saturday night at Lambeau Field.
Never mind that he’s a year and a half older than Rams coach Sean McVay or that he used to watch his UCLA defenses deal with Cal’s Aaron Rodgers.
“He’s just a great example of what you can do if you dedicate yourself,” said Raul Lara, now the coach at St. Anthony, who coached the Poly Five when they were seniors, the first fivesome ever to make Parade’s All-America team.
“He was unstoppable on offense, and we finally used him on defense that year, and he was devastating there, too.”
Lewis was always a Jackrabbit. He and Darnell Bing played Pop Warner football at Poly. From 1997 through 2000, Poly won 47 games, lost one and tied one, with three CIF Southern Section championships. They won another in 2001.
“It was a dream of mine,” Lewis said Tuesday. “I just remember all of us being in the paper all the time, everybody knowing who we were. But my mom and step-dad kept me grounded, thinking about every single day.”
Bing was a linebacker, Hershel Dennis the running back, Winston Justice the offensive tackle, Manuel Wright a huge defensive tackle. They all went to USC.
Justice played seven NFL seasons, five with Philadelphia, and now works in Nashville for Bernstein, a wealth management firm.
Wright is the only one of the Five, so far, to win a Super Bowl, with the New York Giants. He coaches at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa and has already signed up with the San Diego Strikeforce of the Indoor Football League.
Dennis got the most hype in high school, but injuries derailed him at USC. He did play six years (due to medical exceptions) and win 70 games, the most in college football history. Today he is an athletic trainer.
Bing played six NFL seasons for five teams. He has been a counselor at Mt. San Jacinto College and has raised funds for Olive Crest, a school for abused children in the Coachella Valley.
And there’s Lewis, who is the No. 5 run-blocking tight end in the Pro Football Focus ratings. Lewis, 6-foot-6, also caught 23 passes. In 2010 with Jacksonville he took 10 of his 58 catches to the end zone and made the Pro Bowl.
He was a Jaguar for 12 years, until he wasn’t anymore.
“They picked up my option and let me go two weeks later,” Lewis said. “I was shocked. For a month or so I went through these emotions. Maybe I didn’t want to play anymore. To come to Green Bay and play my brand of football, in an offense that still values my skill set, has been gratifying.”
Lewis has been at Lambeau for four years and is signed up for a fifth in 2022. Across the field Saturday, Lewis will see Jon Embree, the 49ers’ tight ends coach. Embree was his position coach at UCLA.
“There are a lot of one-trick ponies in this game,” Embree told him. “They don’t last very long.”
Embree was showing him the road to the roaring 20s. To stay there, Lewis needs a 12-month strategy. But some of it is strategic retreat.
His workouts normally revolve around MMA and basketball, “not playing ball, just basketball drills, and it keeps my mind sharp and not overwhelmed. I have to free myself from the monotony that the season brings.”
His personal barber, Angel, flew up from Jacksonville last week and asked Lewis if he missed his old home. Lewis told him the football was cool, but a dozen years of relationships couldn’t be replaced.
“Coming here was different,” he said. “There’s snow on the ground, you’re not out and about as much. And for three straight years, I had one-year contracts. I never knew how long I’d be here.
“But basically it’s about being a positive force no matter who you’re in contact with.”
The force and the contact must continue. Somebody has to make the handoff to the next Poly Five.
