Maximus Lockett looked like a basketball player. He stood 6-foot-7, 185 pounds as a freshman and played varsity basketball at Northampton. Basketball occupied most of his life, as Lockett traveled the country on the AAU circuit and logged highlight videos from camps and middle school on YouTube.

“If you told me I was going to play D1 football [my] freshman year at Northampton [High School] I would have laughed. Everyone would laugh. I did not look like a D1 football player. It came through hard work,” Lockett said. “I had dreams and aspirations to play at the next level somewhere. I didn’t think it was going to be football. I didn’t think it was going to be at tackle.”

Only Biff Poggi saw a tackle initially. The current Charlotte head coach was still at his alma mater Saint Frances in Baltimore in 2020. In video of Lockett dunking and photos in basketball jerseys, somehow he envisioned a tackle and a program cornerstone.

“The kind of person you want to bet on. If you don’t get it back on the field - for some reason - you get it back in the culture of the football team,” Poggi said. “There is no downside to coaching a kid like him. They’ve hit the lottery. You can’t get any better than that.”

A chance meeting between Poggi and his dad Andy Lockett presented the opportunity for Max to play football for one of the nation’s premier programs.

“I had a lot of people telling me I was delusional and my only shot was going to be in basketball, and I just threw that away,” Lockett said. “I was very determined, I’m still determined.”

Max signed a Division I Letter of Intent to join the Youngstown State football program Feb. 1. He skipped a basketball game at his old stomping grounds in Northampton to attend a recruiting trip the prior week.

“I’m committed now,” Max said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to settle.”

”WHO WOULDN’T WANT HIM”

Andy Lockett first met Biff Poggi in 2019 reporting on Saint Frances for ESPN. They talked about their families and lives trying to build trust and a rapport. Those conversations included pictures of their kids and videos from athletic events. Andy sent a picture from an AAU game, grainy and back lit, with Max soaring high over the competition.

“That caught Biff’s attention,” Andy said.

ESPN instructed Andy to catch up with Poggi and Saint Frances early in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic altered the sports landscape. Poggi was happy to detail that, but first he wanted to talk about Max. Where most saw a basketball center, Poggi envisioned a left tackle.

“Who wouldn’t want him? He’s 6-8 and can jump and run. I know he hadn’t played football before, but when I found out what kind of kid he was, we were really interested in him being a part of the team. He was a kid that had a high emotional quotient. He’s got a lot of empathy,” Poggi said. “He’s a motivated and driven kid but not at the expense of stepping on other people. Those are the kind of people you create championship programs with.”

Andy knew what his son would be signing up for. He compared it to Marine boot camp. Saint Frances finished the 2019 season ranked No. 3 nationally. The Panthers’ roster included three top-100 players in 2020.

He drove Max to Baltimore so he could see it himself. During the tour, Max watched Derrick Moore, a four-star defensive end now at Michigan, devour offensive linemen in practice.

“These guys were not little,” Max said. “I was terrified. But I trusted my coaches would help me get right.I took a lot of pride in stepping in unknown waters. There were a lot of people who thought I wasn’t going to be able to do any of this.”

HOOPS OVER HELMETS

Max first donned football pads at age eight for one practice.

“They hit him, and he said, ‘nope, I’m done,’” said Tammy Lockett, Max’s mom.

He returned to football in middle school for a few years, but basketball won his heart. Max played AAU with his eventual Springfield Central teammates William Watson III and Jayden Bass under Central football and basketball coach Bill Watson. He hooped at both Fay School in Southborough and Lexington Christian before landing at Northampton. As an eighth grader, Max bent a rim dunking with two hands on the fast break.

“We were a landing spot for him and a place for him to get back on his feet,” Northampton varsity boys’ basketball coach Rey Harp said. “I think I may have joked with him at one point that he looks like a football player and he should be thinking about playing football. That was never serious. He never expressed an interest in playing football. Basketball was his goal, his focus. He really loved basketball. But we’ve seen that before, we’ve seen kids that fall in love with their second love.”

Max weighed practical matters against emotion once he received Poggi’s full scholarship offer to come play football and basketball at Saint Frances. There are a lot of 6-7 basketball players and more scholarships available on a football team than basketball.

“He always liked new adventures. He’d been doing basketball so long that football is still intriguing to him and newer,” Andy said.

That didn’t make the decision easy. He consulted adults close to him like his middle school teacher Ellen Kennedy and his dad’s best friend David LaFountain, who helped him see his future in football.

“It was the best decision I’ve made,” Max said.

The Lockett men still needed to convince Tammy. They appealed to the fact that she lived by herself in New York in her 20s.

“I tried to talk him out of it. I talked to some of the coaches and they said if I were you, I wouldn’t send my kid here. It was really intense,” she said. “I’m not really comfortable with it, but I’m not going to stand in your way.”

A BALTIMORE LOVE THING

Tammy visited the campus in the Old East Baltimore Historic District for the first time shortly after he transferred. She saw his dorm room and said, “We’re leaving, now. Get in the car, we’re going back now.”

Max refused. She cleaned his room and left him food to make sure he had everything he needed.

“I really wanted him to achieve what he was trying to achieve, but at the same time I was constantly worried about him,” Tammy said. “I always believed he would get where he wanted to go, and I think he did, too. It always seems to end up being the hard way with him.”

Both on the field and off it. Max couldn’t survive as a 185-pound left tackle, so the staff moved him to defensive end. With no games in the fall of 2020, he dedicated himself in the weight room and drills. 

“It came to me that I could have a lot of potential in this sport,” Max said. “Slowly but surely, I more or less fell in love with it.”

His teammates became his friends and accepted him because of his work ethic and selflessness. He lived with quarterback John Griffith and receiver Lamar Patterson, training with them daily as he became a football player. Game reps came in the fall of 2021, working with a new coaching staff after Poggi left to become the University of Michigan’s associate head coach in July 2021.

“It was really hard for Max in the beginning because the guy had never played. He’s this long kind of gangly guy playing against some of the very best players in the nation,” Poggi said. “There were some tough days for Max. Tough weeks for Max. Tough months for Max.” 

He struggled being away from family facing competitive 5 a.m. practices. It was made clear to him early that his scholarship could be taken as easily as it was given. Max grew up fast. 

“It was a struggle. It was Baltimore, very rough area. You don’t want to make a wrong move there,” Max said. “It’s a tough environment. I’m never going to go through something quite as hard as that was. I was able to get through it.”

After earning his driver’s license, Andy bought him a Honda Accord that he drove home most weekends up through New Jersey and across the George Washington Bridge.

“It was a tough time mentally. It hurt not being able to see my family. It hurt not being able to see my friends, watching my friends go up back home, and when I’d return home things weren’t the same,” Max said.  “I felt pretty severe levels of depression. I sought a lot of therapy. Everyone helped me get through it. “

After the first semester in 2021, with Poggi now established at Michigan and Andy working at MGM Springfield, it became clear that Max should come home. He enrolled at Central for the spring semester intending to play football and basketball for the Golden Eagles the next year as a senior. 

“At the time I was having trouble at the defensive end position. The coaching wasn’t the same. It’s like college, coaches move on, sometimes it’s hard to stick with the new coaches,” Max said. “Coming home was good for my family, me personally, my mental health. I’d be able to have more time developing as a football player.”

Max didn’t leave Baltimore’s strife completely behind, though.

Patterson was killed in a car accident involving a light rail train in February 2022 on the way to school.

“I never really got to say bye,” Max said. “Football will forever be dedicated to Lamar.”

“I NEEDED FILM”

Max knew a lot of players and coaches once he started practice with Central. He didn’t want handouts.

“It was told from the get go it was not going to be easy. I wanted to prove myself. The first place I was going to prove myself was in the weight room,” he said. “I would push myself to never lose in conditioning drills.”

Not losing is a part of Central’s DNA in recent years. The Golden Eagles had won three consecutive state championships, including the 2021 MIAA Division 1 crown. That level of excellence enticed college coaches.

Max had received some recruiting interest while at Saint Frances. Liberty and UCLA contacted him, among others. Pittsburgh, Boston College and regional FCS schools checked in while he was at Central.

“I had a lot of coaches hit me up, intrigued in me as a prospect, but I needed film,” Lockett said. “If I had more film, this probably would have happened sooner. But I wouldn’t want it to be any different.”

He played as the team’s only tight end all year but gravitated more toward the offensive linemen than the receivers. His middle school football offensive line mates wore shirts that branded them “hoggies,” and they went out for pizza together.

“The offensive line is a family. It’s a well-oiled machine,” Max said. “If one person messes up, your quarterback gets sacked. Everyone has to do their part.”

Central tackle Jayden Bass, Max’s former AAU teammate that will play at Syracuse next year, hurt himself against Boston College High, so Max had to step in for the Golden Eagles’ third game. Bass told him to move his feet and use his long arms.

“I love to block. I love to be physical, I love to get dirty,” Lockett said. “That third game where I got to play offensive line was the funnest game I’ve ever played.”

The Golden Eagles only lost to nationally-ranked St. John’s College High School out of Washington D.C. during the regular season and reached a second consecutive Division 1 final.

While Max had heard from plenty of interested schools, none had said the magic word “offer” yet.

His hometown team UMass first offered him a preferred walk-on spot on Jan. 12, a week after Central’s basketball team faced Northampton. That night in Springfield brought a lot full circle. Max hugged Blue Devils coach Rey Harp during pregame introductions. The longtime ’Hamp boss had never coached against a former player.

“It was kind of a crazy night. It felt like I was scouting my own kid,” Harp said. “I will forever root for him. When he came to us, he still didn’t know how to play basketball yet. And he was a force.”

That’s where Max is with football now. He committed to Youngstown State on Jan. 29 after loving the campus, the people. The coaching staff told him it wouldn’t be easy. Max plans to redshirt this fall and live in the weight room to try and exceed expectations in 2024.

“Max is kind of like Frankenstein on the slab right now, but the lightning hasn’t hit the pole,” Andy Lockett said. “It was going to require a D1 program saying ‘we can work with this raw clay.’”

Seems like a good bet.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>