This article highlights the achievements of four former high school athletes who have found success in college. It discusses their athletic and academic accomplishments and how their time in high school helped prepare them for their current success.
(left to right, school photos) Former Cardinal Ritter receiver Frederick Moore celebrates last week after his Michigan Wolverines won the NCAA national championship. Meanwhile, Mizzou’s Luther Burden (3), a former Riiter and East St Louis high school star, helped lead the Tigers to a top-10 finish and earned first team, All-SEC and second team All-American honors. Over the hard wood floor, meanwhile, two former high school basketball stars at Jennings and Gateway Stem, Karl Moore (24) and Jemord Sykes II (11) have helped Webster the University Gorlocks stay competitive (7-7) on the Division 3 level.
They were last teammates and underclassmen receivers on the Cardinal Ritter 2020 football team, which lost to eventual Missouri Class 2 state champion Blair Oaks 55-46 in the state semifinals. Fast forward to this winter, three seasons later and both Luther Burden and Frederick Moore had more celebrate on a higher collegiate level.
Moore, a freshman reserve receiver for the Michigan Wolverines, got to play in his club’s recent 34-13 rout of the Washington Huskies in the NCAA national championship, and joined teammates in displaying a T-shirt which read: National Champions Without A Doubt. Just the previous season as a senior at Cardinal Ritter, Moore had caught 67 passes for 1,504 yards and 24 touchdowns to help the Lions to an undefeated season as well and the Missouri Class 3 state championship.
Meanwhile just a couple of weeks earlier, Burden had caught the game-clinching touchdown to help spark the Missouri Tigers to a 14-3 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl, which secured Mizzou’s first top-10 finish in the national polls in over a decade. Burden, a sophomore for the Tigers, merely capped off a season in which he snared 88 passes for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns to earn first team All-Southeastern Conference honors and second team All-American. Suffice to say, Burden, who spent his final year of high school at East St. Louis after his first three at Cardinal Ritter, has emerged as one of the catalysts and leaders of the rising Tigers’ program, despite his relative youth.
“I guess it is kind of just grooming, just being around the guys and feeling comfortable for them to let me lead them,” Burden told reporters after the Cotton Bowl triumph.
For both Moore and Burden, their path to a national team and individual success on the national collegiate level started at Cardinal Ritter College Prep high school, where both were exceptional talents before leaving.
In fact, Moore will be expected to play a more prominent role in Michigan’s passing attack next season, with its current star Roman Wilson (789 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns) have declared for the NFL draft. At the same time, Burden will just add to his growing legacy at Mizzou next season. It’s only fitting Moore will likely follow Burden for individual stardom, just like at Ritter.
In that aforementioned state semifinal loss to Blair Oaks, Burden missed the second half with an injury, in what turned out to be his final game as a Cardinal Ritter Lion. But Moore, an unsung sophomore then with limited stats, came through with two touchdown receptions in the fourth quarter, including a deep 50-yard bomb to help keep Ritter in the game. A star was born then. Lions coach Brennan Spain said during that offseason when Burden left, that players like Moore would be emerging. Now, Moore will be primed to emerge at Michigan next season.
While Burden and Moore are just two of many former area high school football players experiencing success in college football, two unsung and unheralded former area prep basketball stars have carried that success over as teammates for Webster University’s men’s basketball team: 6-foot-4 junior forward-center Karl Moore of Jennings High and 6-2 sophomore guard Jemord Sykes II of Gateway. Moore is averaging 12.8 points, second-best on the Gorlocks squad and a team-high 9.1 rebounds.
“Karl (Moore) is at full strength now (after an injury) and playing well,” said Gorlocks coach Chris Bunch. “He is one of the best defenders, shot blockers and rebounders in the country in Division 3 (small colleges). He is also staring to become more of a scorer this year as well.”
Sykes, who averaged in double figures in points (12.4 ) and rebounds (11.3) when he last played in high school for the Jaguars, is described by Bunch as extremely versatile.
“Jemard is one of the best all-around players in our league,” said Bunch. “He is like a guard and a power forward all rolled into one. He is an exceptional offensive rebounder. He is also one of the best defenders. He handles the ball much of the time and he can shoot as well. He is having a great year for us.”
They are just four of a litany of former prep stars will successful journeys to share, needless to say.
