Story by
Dolphins free agents making homecomings reminisce on South Florida football memories
- Story by
- Dolphins free agents making homecomings reminisce on South Florida football memories
New Miami Dolphins edge defender Josh Uche nearly never had a high school football career, let alone in college or the NFL, were it not for a coach willing to bend an eligibility rule and dismiss Uche's own parents' wishes before it all got started.
Uche, one of three Dolphins free agents signed in the past few weeks who is making a homecoming to South Florida this offseason, started playing Pop Warner football when he was in middle school.
Advertisement
As he got to high school, starting off at Miami Palmetto, he wanted to keep playing, but his father wouldn't let him. Palmetto's coach at the time, Matt Dixon, seeing the untapped potential, begged and begged, but Uche's father wouldn't budge.
"So, one day — it's a crazy story — I'm just in the training room; I was always trying to be around the guys," Uche recalled recently on a web conference call with media members who cover the Dolphins. "And one day, coach Dixon was just sick of it. He was like, 'Josh, I don't care what your dad says; you're going to play this game.'
"He comes in. He throws me a pair of shoulder pads. I played the first game, and I ball out."
And that's how Uche's story got started in earnest. He transferred to Miami's Columbus High, the same school which produced the coming draft's presumptive No. 1 pick, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. From there, he was a three-star recruit who earned a scholarship to Michigan in the Wolverines' 2016 recruiting class. Uche eventually was a second-round draft pick of the New England Patriots in 2020.
Advertisement
It wasn't without repercussions for Dixon.
"He ends up getting suspended for that, which was crazy because I wasn't really technically (on the roster), but that's how all that kind of started," Uche said. "Shout out to coach Dixon. That's a real guy. That's my guy right there."
Related Articles
As new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan has populated the roster with economical pieces in free agency over the past weeks, he has brought in three former South Florida high school football standouts.
Along with Uche, wide receiver Tutu Atwell, a Miami Northwestern High alum, and cornerback Marco Wilson , who made a name for himself at American Heritage in Plantation, are making professional homecomings this year with the Dolphins.
Advertisement
"I just remember just a lot of family there growing up, back in my backyard, Liberty City," Atwell said of his football memories in Miami before starring at Louisville and then with the Los Angeles Rams for his first five NFL seasons. "I started at Liberty City Warriors, went to Miami Northwestern. I'm just glad to be back, man."
When Wilson made his signing official at team facilities, the Dolphins posted a picture of him as a child in Dolphins gear, donning linebacker Zach Thomas' old No. 54 . He said in the video he wanted to play for the Dolphins since his youth.
Both Wilson and Uche will try to reclaim their success from career seasons in 2022. That year with the Arizona Cardinals for Wilson, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft out of Florida, he had all three of his career interceptions. For Uche with the Patriots in 2022, he had 11 1/2 of his 21 1/2 career sacks.
Uche figures to be essential personnel for a defense that needs edge rushers to step up and get the quarterback down around 2024 first-round pick Chop Robinson .
Advertisement
Wilson, who appeared in four games for the Cincinnati Bengals last season, will be fighting for his opportunities among a slew of cornerbacks brought in during free agency. Wilson's older brother, Quincy, a 2017 second-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts , was vying for a roster spot with Miami in the 2022 offseason and training camp but didn't make the team.
With the Dolphins trading wide receiver Jaylen Waddle last week, Atwell could carve out a major role in the offense with his speed and ability to extend the field, as well as elude tacklers in the open field with the ball in his hands.
When he starred locally at Northwestern, he was a high school quarterback who took a proud, storied program that was down on hard times back to a state championship by his senior season in 2017.
Atwell's full name is Chatarius Antwan "Tutu" Atwell Jr. Before him, his father, also a neighborhood great with the same name who went on to have a standout college career at Minnesota , had a unique way of how the family settled on Tutu.
Advertisement
"My dad's cousin couldn't pronounce our real name, so he just came up with Tutu, and it just stuck forever," Atwell Jr. explained. "I'm a junior, so it was kind of passed down to me."
Atwell converted to play wide receiver at Louisville and was off to the Rams after three seasons, picked in the second round in 2021. He has 1,535 receiving yards and five touchdowns over the past four NFL seasons.
Atwell was already giving back to his community and high school when he was out on the West Coast, and he said he's looking forward to being closer and more involved now that he's back in Miami.
For Uche, a certain former Dolphins pass rusher played a key role in his early development as he watched from afar in South Florida: Cameron Wake .
Advertisement
"You can ask my Pop Warner coach, even at Columbus. I was in this crazy four-point stance most of my career, and it was because I started off watching Cam Wake get after the quarterback," Uche said, reminiscing. "Every Sunday after church, me and my dad would watch the Dolphins, and I would see what he would do and I'd try to go to practice and do the same exact thing.
"Whenever I talk to kids at my football camps, I tell them, 'Find a player you like, go to practice and try to do what you just saw them do.' For me, it was Cam Wake."
The new Dolphins who hail from South Florida can create more memories playing in their hometown this fall.
