Detroit Cass Tech sophomore offensive lineman Antijuan Wilkes lives by a simple hierarchy that has allowed him to excel on and off the football field.
“I like to go by God, books and then ball,” Wilkes said in the Cass Tech weight room on Wednesday, April 15. “God lets me know [what to do], I get that school work done and then I ball.”
Wilkes’ order of life operations has led him to success thus far. The sophomore started up front on the Division 1 state runner-up and will transition to being the focal point of Cass Tech’s offensive line with the departure of Khalief Canty Jr., now enrolled at Missouri.
Wilkes has spent the offseason reshaping his body and hitting the books as his dreams to play at the next level start to come into focus. Wilkes, a 6-foot-7 and 280-pound sophomore nicknamed “Shaq” by his teammates, has turned heads nationally after his first varsity season. He is now ranked as the top offensive lineman and No. 5 overall recruit in the 2028 class, according to Rivals.
“Be a student of the game,” Wilkes said of his offseason growth. “Watch more film. Get stronger. Get faster.”
Wilkes has started to traverse the country on weekends for college recruiting trips. Visits only take place on the weekends to avoid missing class time.
“I don’t like missing school,” Wilkes said. “So, if any college wants to get me down there, get me on the weekends.”
Weekends are a necessity for the recruiting trips, 7-on-7 leagues or playing in other sports like AAU basketball due to the academic requirements at Cass Tech, coupled with the Technicians’ offseason strength and conditioning program on school days.
Cass Tech athletes, especially those with high-level collegiate aspirations, are aware of the expectations on and off the field. Cass Tech students must maintain a 2.5 GPA or higher to remain enrolled, and that number bumps up to a 2.7 for students trying to graduate early. Athletes looking to play in college meet with counselors at the start of the school year to understand what classes are required for where they want to go and what they want to do.
Monica Jones, a counselor and NCAA coordinator for Cass Tech students, meets with students, parents coaches and administrators each spring to lay out the groundwork for any kid looking to graduate early and enroll in college in January of their senior year of high school. The meeting goes over class requirements, whether or not Advanced Placement classes for college credit are required and what summer classes – typically math and English – students need to take in the summer between their junior and senior years.
“It’s not necessarily for everybody,” Jones said on Friday, April 17. “Because you are not just going from high school to college. Everything is taken up a notch academically, athletically and even socially. So, are you really ready to leave the high school environment and go straight into the college environment unlike your classmates?”
Jones also has prospective student-athletes meet with a former Cass student who went through a similar process. Jones started that practice after a conversation with Donovan Peoples-Jones, a 2017 graduate who enrolled early at the University of Michigan, who said the jump to college was “no joke” for him despite being an honors student loaded up on AP classes at Cass.
Early enrollments for football have increased since the introduction of the early signing period in 2017 by the NCAA.
“I said, the next time we have an early graduate, I need to have somebody who has experienced this on that Zoom call with us,” Jones said.
Sophomore quarterback Donald Tabron II, a five-star recruit and top-35 player nationally in 2028 according to 247Sports, has been on the academic fast track since enrolling at Cass. Described lovingly as an “overachiever” by Jones, Tabron has been in honors math classes since his freshman year.
He plans to take a few AP classes, probably World History and either Calculus or Statistics, during his final two years to get a jump-start on his college credits as he prepares for the next level.
“It’s been difficult leaving on Fridays, going on visits, getting back on Monday, maybe missing class and staying ahead of all of it,” Tabron said. “And then just encouraging all of the guys to keep their grades up. Because this is the most important part. It is student before athlete. We can’t be athletes if we aren’t students first.
“We have that mentality of, we need to be really good students because that is what you need if you want to go to college.”
The academic emphasis starts at the top and permeates through every level of the school and program, down to teammate tutoring sessions or late-night phone calls to help out a friend with homework. Practice and training is usually a few hours after school ends, leaving time for every football player to get their academics in order before ball.
“It’s like following a collegiate format,” said Cass Tech football coach Marvin Rushing. “There’s always time appropriated for academics. Obviously, that is the priority and that is why you are here. After school, we appropriate an hour to two hours for study tables and tutoring. It allows guys to do their stuff and work together.”
Tabron and Wilkes are part of that process, helping teammates when necessary and receiving that same help if it is not one of their strong subjects while balancing training and college interest. Tabron takes as much pride in his studies as his tight spiral and 27-1 record as a high schooler.
In February, Tabron received a letter from State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko recommending him for AP and/or dual enrollment classes as a junior and senior because of his high scores on the state-mandated PSAT tests.
Tabron has always prioritized his studies thanks to guidance from his parents, who both hold Master’s degrees from UPenn (mother) and Northwood (father). The focus has helped position Tabron to excel with books and ball for his final two years at Cass and at the next level.
“They write us down as just a football school,” Tabron said. “But Cass, overall, is an academic school. Cass is really academics first and then it’s football or any other sport or activity. The young men in the school, whether it’s me, Mylan (Griggs), Shaq (Wilkes) or whoever, we have a great deal of expectation in this academic world.
“It is not easy and that is why I believe we are the best in the classroom and on the field. Because it is a grind every day.”
Nominate a high school athlete for the Detroit Free Press boys and girls athlete of the week.
Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2 of nation’s best sophomores go ‘books and then ball’ at Detroit Cass Tech
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
