Football Athlete of the Year: Remington Blue

Posted 6/27/14

With every passing year, people involved in the Bishop Hendricken football team’s run of four consecutive state championships will reflect back with a little more wonder.

Much of it will be …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Football Athlete of the Year: Remington Blue

Posted

With every passing year, people involved in the Bishop Hendricken football team’s run of four consecutive state championships will reflect back with a little more wonder.

Much of it will be reserved for a 5-foot-9 running back who became one of the best that’s ever donned the green and gold.

Remington Blue leaves Hendricken with nearly 3,000 career rushing yards, 35 touchdowns, and back-to-back Super Bowl MVP awards.

“The further away we get from the run we’ve had, I think the more we’ll look back and kind of be amazed,” said Hendricken head coach Keith Croft. “I can’t remember a Hendricken running back who’s been more productive. He won back-to-back Super Bowl MVP’s. That doesn’t happen.”

Blue made it happen – and he couldn’t have been happier.

“It was just a great way to finish off my high school career,” he said. “To win the fourth championship in a row and make history – it’s kind of unbeatable. It was definitely a phenomenal feeling.”

Blue grew up playing football with youth leagues in Exeter/West Greenwich and Coventry. He was always a running back, and he started at that spot for Hendricken’s freshman team in 2011. But he knew he had work to do as he made the transition to varsity. As a sophomore, he rushed for 268 yards in spot duty.

“Coming in, I knew it was a heck of a lot different than Pop Warner,” Blue said. “One of the things that motivated me is that everybody at Hendricken is good. And I also had the adversity of being a smaller player. I had to overcome that and earn that spot.”

He earned it in a very big way.

With talented players nipping at his heels, Blue put a stranglehold on the job as a junior and became Hendricken’s key offensive cog. He rushed for 1,227 yards and 10 touchdowns and led the Hawks’ Super Bowl upset of La Salle with an MVP performance.

Blue’s off-season work fueled his breakout.

“Pound-for-pound, he’s the strongest kid on the team,” Croft said.

As a senior, Blue was no longer a secret to the rest of the state, but it still didn’t matter. Even with teams keying on him, he rushed for 1,405 yards and an eye-popping 22 touchdowns. When Hendricken beat Cranston East for its fourth straight title, the MVP honor again went to Blue, but he would have rather shared it.

“I couldn’t have done it without the guys around me,” he said. “I played for four years, and all my personal success, I wouldn’t have had any of it without them.”

Blue finished his career with 2,900 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns. He graduated this spring and will now accept a scholarship to play football at Division III McDaniel College in Westminster, Md.

As Hendricken chases another title this fall, they’ll have to do it without one of their best.

“He’s the type of kid we’re going to miss more than we realize,” Croft said. “He was a huge part of everything we accomplished.”

- William Geoghegan

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here