Straight to the pros — A.J. McEwen

A weekly feature in which we spotlight a player from the West Michigan area, comparing him to his NFL counterpart based on his playing style, talent (relative, of course), appearance or anything else that warrants a comparison.

A.J. McEwen (East Grand Rapids) — Devin Hester

AJ McEwen | Rex Larsen | The Grand Rapids Press

To any football fan worth his Lay-Z-Boy, the name Devin Hester immediately brings to mind images of plays like this, or this, or maybe even this.  And it’s a shame that the level of coverage available to high school sports has not yet reached that of the NCAA or the NFL, because if it had, there would be a nice little link to a similar A.J. McEwen highlight vid right about here.  But as it stands, what’s available is this season preview video of McEwen at practice.

Regardless, as anyone who has been to a game at Memorial Stadium will attest (and if you haven’t, make sure to do so), McEwen puts his considerable quicks on display in similar fashion on a nightly basis.  But McEwen’s athleticism is only a small part of this comparison.  It’s more the vehicle by which he makes his impact, rather than the impact itself.

The real meat and potatoes of A.J. McEwen’s game, what makes him as valuable a weapon as EGR head coach Peter Stuursma has, is his versatility.  Like Hester, McEwen is the prototypical triple-threat.

On offense, the program will tell you that the East Grand Rapids senior is a wide receiver.  And he is, mostly.  But he’s proven to be so dangerous with the ball in his hands that the Pioneers make it a point to arrange that meeting at every opportunity.  Whether he uses McEwen as a wide receiver or running back (or maybe even quarterback; he took snaps earlier in his career at East Kentwood), Stuursma’s goal is always to get McEwen the ball in space.  Then McEwen can go to work.

On defense, McEwen makes his presence felt by locking down the opponent’s top wideout.  Matched up one-on-one with a receiver, McEwen is difficult to beat.  It can be done, particularly by taller receivers (like Hester, McEwen is a bit on the vertically challenged side).  But as Orchard Lake St. Mary’s quarterback Robert Bolden discovered in week-1, McEwen is usually fast enough to recover.  He lead the Pioneers in interceptions last year, and his game-changing pick in week-1 has him out in front again this year.

In the return game, McEwen does a solid Hester impersonation every time he catches the ball.  Like a pinball, or the fly in your car that you can never quite catch, McEwen changes pace and direction with a speed that is tough to match at the high school level.  He routinely turns a busted return into a 20-yarder (although sometimes he has to run about 75 yards in erratic squiggles to do so).

The 3-time Division-3 state champion East Grand Rapids Pioneers are loaded with talent at multiple positions.  Their offense is effective, their defense stellar, and their special teams loaded with game-breaking potential.  Like Hester on the Chicago Bears, McEwen makes his mark on all three.

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