One was arguably the greatest high school athlete Virginia ever produced: a dual-threat quarterback pursued by almost every college in the country; a basketball star who thought about jumping straight to the NBA; the national player of the year in both sports and someone destined for superstardom.

The other was Michael Vick.

They were contemporaries on the Virginia Peninsula in the mid-’90s, Ronald Curry hogging the spotlight at state power Hampton High School during the height of its dominance and Vick’s stardom bubbling just below the surface seven miles to the west at Ferguson and later Warwick High.

Curry, planning to play both football and basketball in college, had committed to North Carolina. Vick, wanting to stay close to home, signed with up-and-coming Virginia Tech. For one week in Hampton 25 years ago, they were teammates in the Virginia High School Coaches Association all-star game.

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