The year was 1987. A 16-year-old kid with celebrity charisma, a contagious smile and flowing long hair was storming into the international tennis scene like a tornado. He was handsome, and he was talented. And he was from Vegas.
His name was Andre Agassi, and he was becoming a household name. But while accomplishing unbelievable feats on the court, he was also pulling off something no one saw coming at the time: he was putting Southern Nevada on the country’s sports map for the first time.
At a time when most Americans still asked the question “Who lives in Vegas?” there was finally an answer. Or at least the beginning of one.
A town not known for elite athletics began to produce stars. Greg Anthony, Greg Maddux, Steven Jackson, Kyle Busch, Bryce Harper and countless others. Suddenly, premier athletes were coming out of Southern Nevada. Collegiate champions, professional champions, and Olympic medal winners.
Agassi was homeschooled, but most of the standouts were coming from area high schools. The valley was suddenly pumping out elite men’s and women’s athletes at a comparable rate to the rest of the country.
Las Vegas is now at the point where at least one famous athlete has come from every 4A and 5A public and parochial high school. Some just a few, others too many to name.
But which local superstar is the best out of each school? More specifically, which area athletes have reached the highest level of their sports? For some schools, that might be limited to high school success. But for most, it means college, Olympic or professional dominance, and the kinds of awards, accolades and numbers that none of their peers have matched. In fact, some might be the most successful and regonizable in the history of their sports.
Note: Review-Journal sports editor Bill Bradley, assistant sports editor Diamond Leung, reporters Adam Hill and Alex Wright, and former preps reporter Damon Seiters contributed to the selections in this story.
Arbor View: Michael Blazek
The 2007 Aggies graduate made it to The Show, playing 13 seasons of pro baseball that included five in MLB. Blazek, a right-handed pitcher, peaked in 2015 with a 2.43 ERA and just three home runs allowed in 45 appearances. By the time he retired in 2020, he had played a combined 113 games for the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals.
Basic: Ryne Nelson
Though former U.S. Senate majority leader and Basic grad Harry Reid boxed and played football during his youth, he didn’t get as far in sports as Nelson did. A 2016 Wolves grad, Nelson pitched and played shortstop for the Wolves before landing a spot as a starting pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2022. Nelson’s best season came in the 2025 season (7–3, 3.39 ERA over 154 innings), and he is currently working his way back from an elbow injury.
Bishop Gorman (tie): DeMarco Murray
Most locals will remember this 2006 grad who played basketball and was a standout running back for the Gaels football team. He stuck with football after leaving Gorman and went on to win three Big 12 titles with Oklahoma. And don’t forget the BCS national championship game appearance in 2008. He advanced to the NFL from there, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. Murray retired in 2018 after compiling 7,174 rushing yards, 2,165 receiving yards and 55 career touchdowns, and is now serving his third coaching stint as a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Bishop Gorman (tie): Marty Cordova
As a three-sport high school standout, this 1987 grad made his share of headlines over his pro baseball career from 1989-2003. Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 1989, the left fielder made an immediate impact by hitting .277 with 24 home runs, 84 RBIs, and 20 stolen bases to win the AL Rookie of the Year in 1995. He would later play for the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles over nine MLB seasons, finishing his career in 2003 with a .274 career batting average.
Bonanza: Kris Bryant
Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds was a musical, but not athletic, Bonanza grad. It was the opposite for Bryant. After a dominant high school baseball career, the 2010 Bengals grad was a multiple national award winner at the University of San Diego. Drafted second overall by the Chicago Cubs in 2013, he made his MLB debut as a third baseman/outfielder in 2015 and became a unanimous choice for that season’s NL Rookie of the Year award after hitting 26 home runs with 99 RBIs. He was a four-time All-Star selection before going on to play for the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies and struggling with injuries throughout the latter half of his career. He remains under contract with the Rockies but has not played since early last year.
Canyon Springs: Donnel Pumphrey
This 2013 Pioneers grad may have been a bit small for a running back, but he played a big game. The 5-foot-8-inch, 165-pound standout was largely overlooked by recruiters, but his high school coach, Hunkie Cooper, had moved to San Diego State and brought him along. Good move, as Pumphrey ended up as the NCAA FBS rushing leader, breaking Ron Dayne’s record during the 2016 Las Vegas Bowl to finish his college career with 6,405 official NCAA career rushing yards. NFL stints with the Eagles ensued, but he only played in preseason games for the Super Bowl-winning team and injuries plagued him until he retired in 2020. Pumphrey later went into coaching and remains the running backs coach at Sacramento State.
Centennial: Rhamondre Stevenson
This 2016 Bulldogs grad attained football success the hard way. Though the standout running back rushed for 1,457 yards and 19 touchdowns in his junior year at Centennial, academic issues and a broken foot sidelined him as a senior. Even so, he played two seasons at the junior college level before earning a spot at Oklahoma. After a 2019 NCAA suspension for failing a marijuana test cost him part of the following season, he returned to win Cotton Bowl MVP honors after rushing for 186 yards and a touchdown against Florida. It was on to New England from there, where he racked up a career-high 1,040 rushing yards and 69 receptions in 2022. After playing in the Super Bowl, he will return for another NFL season in 2026.
Chaparral: Will Hernandez
The Killers’ Brandon Flowers played golf while at Chaparral, but was not the star he would become on the stage. Hernandez was a star. The 2013 Cowboys grad had to jump through his share of hoops to reach the highest level of football. Despite his success at Chaparral as an offensive guard and defensive tackle, he was forced to sit out a season while he helped his family survive a tough financial period. But he caught the eye of scouts and ended up at UTEP, playing in 49 consecutive games and becoming an All-American. He was drafted in 2018 by the New York Giants and started every game in his first two seasons. From there, it was on to the Arizona Cardinals, where he played from 2022 until becoming a free agent in March.
Cheyenne: Ed Hartwell
After lettering in football, basketball and track in high school, the 1996 grad was named to USA Today’s All-USA honorable mention team. But Hartwell was at his best on the gridiron. He moved on to play college ball at Wisconsin before transferring to Western Illinois, where he became an All-American linebacker. That success launched him into a six-season career with the NFL, where he played for the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons. He finished his football career in 2010 with the UFL’s Las Vegas Locomotives, helping the team win the league championship.
Cimarron-Memorial: Brandon Marshall
The 2007 multiple-position graduate played well enough to get his football jersey number retired at Cimarron. He later played linebacker at UNR and was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2012. He joined the Denver Broncos in 2013, amassing 35 tackles and becoming part of the Super Bowl 50 championship team. He retired in 2019.
Clark: Robert Gamez
Though talk show host Jimmy Kimmel attended Clark, he did not play sports. That puts Gamez, a 1986 Chargers grad, at the top of the list. This golf standout humbly started his career playing at Las Vegas Municipal and worked his way onto the PGA Tour in 1990. Most famous for his dramatic hole-out eagle on the 72nd hole to win the 1990 Nestle Invitational that year, he had three PGA titles and nearly $9 million in winnings. He continues to play select tournaments with the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
Coronado: Ben Stevenson
Southern Nevada is not known for water polo, but this 2013 grad is. He played the club circuit, and his keen scoring ability resulted in an invitation to train with the U.S. junior national team. Next up was the University of the Pacific, where he used his three All-American awards as a springboard onto the U.S. Olympic team. He scored five goals in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 to help the Americans take sixth place.
Del Sol: Evan Weinstock
This 2010 Dragons grad achieved greatness in a sport not associated with Vegas weather. True, he was a standout in football and track, winning the Nevada 4A Football Player of the Year as a senior before moving on to Brown University. He competed in the decathlon and heptathlon in college, winning four Ivy League titles. That’s when a twist of fate led him to the USA Olympic bobsled team and took him all the way to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games in 2018. He did not win a medal but was a member of the American record-setting two-man and four-man bobsled teams.
Desert Oasis: Bryson Stott
The 2016 grad got his career rolling as a second baseman for the UNLV baseball team, winning Mountain West Player of the Year honors as a junior in 2019. He was drafted 14th overall by the Philadelphia Phillies that year and remains a lineup regular. Though his MLB career batting average is a modest .258, he is known for his clutch at-bats, including his legendary grand slam in a wild-card series-clinching game against the Miami Marlins in 2023 and a three-run blast that capped an eight-run comeback against the Nationals earlier this season.
Desert Pines: Darnell Washington
This 6-foot-7, 264-pound Jaguars grad was born with a body custom made to play football, particularly tight end. He overcame severe financial adversity and became a five-star recruit out of high school. He was known as a premier blocker, and also racked up 45 receptions for 774 yards and three touchdowns across 36 games for Georgia. Washington helped the Bulldogs win national championships in 2021 and 2022. That led him to an NFL gig with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he remains the No. 2 tight end on the team’s depth chart.
Durango: Kyle Busch
The NASCAR world was shocked by the news of this 2002 Trailblazer grad’s death back in May. He had accomplished many feats in his short time. After graduating from Durango a year early, Busch continued to dominate the LVMS Bullring and soon landed a spot with Roush Racing and later a trio of other teams. His debut was delayed because of his age, but he soon claimed the Cup Series Rookie of the Year honor in 2005. Though he often enraged other drivers with his aggressive driving style, “Rowdy” eventually became the winningest driver in modern NASCAR history with 234 overall victories.
Eldorado: Steven Jackson
This man is arguably the best football player ever to come out of Vegas. The 2001 grad led the Sundevils to the state championship game in his senior year before scoring 19 touchdowns as a running back at Oregon State in 2003. He left college early to join the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. Good move because he would go on to eclipse Eric Dickerson to become the all-time rushing yards leader in Rams franchise history with 10,138.
Faith Lutheran: Bowe Becker
The 2015 Crusaders grad started swimming as a kid in an effort to relieve the symptoms of childhood rheumatoid arthritis. He developed into a ferocious sprinter and went on to become an eight-time All-American while at the University of Minnesota before almost calling it quits. After a brief retirement, he returned to make the U.S. Olympic team for the Tokyo Games held in 2021, swimming the third leg of the men’s gold medal 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Foothill: Miles Killebrew
The 2011 Falcons grad was a running back and wide receiver in high school, but switched to safety at Southern Utah to become an All-Big Sky honors winner in all four starting seasons. The move paid off as he went to the Detroit Lions in the 2016 draft as a safety/special teams man. A move to the Steelers followed, and he became an All-Pro and two-time Pro Bowl selection as a special teams extraordinaire. This year, he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Green Valley: Connor Fields
The 2010 grad went to Green Valley but did his BMX racing on the side. Showing promise early in his career, he went pro in 2011 and made three Olympic appearances. In 2016, he won gold at Rio, making him the first U.S. gold winner in BMX history. He and Andre Agassi remain the only individual men’s Olympic gold medalists from Southern Nevada.
Las Vegas: Bryce Harper
Though he was a Wildcat for his freshman and sophomore high school baseball seasons from 2007-09, Harper was a no-brainer to make the bigs and left the school early after acquiring a GED. His subsequent stint at CSN was destined to be a short one, as he dominated while leading the Coyotes to the 2010 NJCAA World Series in his only season there. He was selected first overall by the Nationals, making his MLB debut at the age of 19, and moved to the Phillies in 2019. With two NL MVPs and nine All-Star appearances, Harper is among the most prolific MLB players of the past several decades.
Legacy: Casey Hughes
The 2014 Longhorns grad excelled in track and football before moving on as a defensive back for Utah. He was named Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention three times there before playing his last season at Michigan. Though he possessed 4.44-second 40-yard dash speed, he garnered little attention from the NFL and left football after college.
Liberty: Troy Fautanu
Football linemen don’t always get the attention they deserve, but this 2019 Patriots grad was hard to ignore. The 6-foot-4-inch offensive tackle, who also excelled at volleyball, became known in high school for his flexibility and quick footwork. From there he played college ball at Washington, where his strong play resulted in multiple honors and a chance to play in the 2024 CFP national championship game. The Steelers selected him in the first round of the NFL draft, but he suffered a severe knee injury in his rookie season. He started every game last season and this year is expected to make a move to the blind side.
Mojave: CJ Shaw
The 2025 Rattlers grad put Mojave on the map by leading the school’s basketball team to Class 4A Nevada state championships in 2022 and 2023. He scored 37 points in the 2023 title game and ultimately surpassed the 2,000 career points mark during his senior season.The success led him to UC Santa Barbara, where he tied the school’s freshman single-season scoring record with 391 points. He figures heavily into the Gauchos’ game plans for the coming season.
Palo Verde: Cody Miller
Despite battling a congenital chest deformity, the 2010 grad and breaststroke specialist became one of many elite Panthers swimmers. He won multiple Big Ten titles at Indiana and earned All-American honors. The success propelled him into the 2016 Rio Olympics where he departed with bronze in the 100-meter breast and gold as a member of the 4x100m medley alongside teammate Michael Phelps.
Rancho (tie): Greg Anthony
The 1986 Rams grad will forever be etched into the hearts of longtime UNLV basketball fans, as he was a key member of the 1990 national championship team. He assumed point guard duties at UNLV after a season at the University of Portland. The man could dish out the assists (838 as a Rebel), and was known for his ferocious defense and his will to conquer most of the title season with a broken jaw. He was selected 12th overall by the New York Knicks in 1991, playing for several NBA teams before finally leaving the game in 2002 to become a sports media analyst.
Rancho (tie): Lionel Hollins
The 1971 grad is one of a handful of local players to make an impact at an elite level of basketball before 1990. The talented point guard was a 1975 All-American at Arizona State after graduating from Rancho, getting drafted sixth overall by the Portland Trail Blazers and playing 10 seasons in the NBA. He was a 1978 All-Star, and his No. 14 Trail Blazers jersey was retired in 2007. He went on to coach for the Memphis Grizzlies, Brooklyn Nets and Lakers.
Shadow Ridge: Korey Toomer
The 2007 Mustangs grad was a feared linebacker in high school, racking up 98 tackles and seven sacks in his senior season. He followed with stints at Arizona Western and Idaho, with his college success landing him on lineups in the NFL and XFL. He peaked with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, logging 121 combined tackles over a 28-game span. He left the game in 2020.
Sierra Vista: Chris Carter
After leading the Mountain Lions to a Class 4A state championship in his senior season, this 2005 grad went to the Chicago White Sox in the draft later that year. The first baseman/DH was dominant in the minors and made his MLB debut in 2010 after being traded to the Oakland A’s. He played for four teams before retiring in 2017 with 536 hits and 158 home runs.
Silverado: Ben Jacobs
The 2005 Skyhawks grad gained a reputation as a smart and explosive linebacker, and ended up at Fresno State. He earned first-team All-WAC honors and forced three fumbles in one game against Louisiana Tech. He advanced to the NFL from there, playing for the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and Carolina Panthers. At Carolina, he was a member of the 2015 team that won the NFC championship and advanced to Super Bowl 50. Jacobs transitioned to coaching in 2019 and currently serves as an assistant special teams coach for Cincinnati.
Spring Valley: Gary Payton II
The 2011 grad, son of an NBA great, did not garner much attention until his later basketball seasons with the Grizzlies. Though he also lettered in swimming, Payton played some junior college hoops before transferring to Oregon State. He won multiple defensive awards there and finally broke his father’s school record by recording 38 consecutive games with at least one steal. After averaging 16 points, 7.8 rebounds, five assists and 2.5 steals in his senior season, Payton played some low-level ball before ending up with the Golden State Warriors. He played a pivotal role off the bench in the team’s 2022 NBA title and is expected to return this year for his 11th NBA season after re-signing with the Warriors.
Sunrise Mountain: Steven Adeyemi
The Nigerian-born basketball phenom was a 2018 Miners grad. He averaged 19 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals per game as a shooting guard in his high school career, earning first team all-state and all-conference honors as a junior. He followed by playing for three different small colleges and now plays internationally.
Tech: Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
This son of a Cuban immigrant was a 2014 Roadrunners grad before becoming a champion boxer. Originally a judo standout, he transitioned to boxing at 17. The aggressive, trash-talking right-hander went pro in 2016 and has compiled a record of 17-2. He holds the title of WBA welterweight champion and will defend his belt against Teofimo Lopez on Saturday.
Valley: Greg Maddux
The 1984 grad is among the most recognized pitchers ever to play baseball. Without a dominant fastball, Maddux used his brains and keen pitch control to dominate hitters after leading the Vikings to a 1983 state championship and finishing his senior year with a 1.66 ERA. He declined college to sign with the Cubs in 1984, but it was in his subsequent stint with the Atlanta Braves that he became the most feared pitcher in baseball. He retired in 2008 with four NL Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring.
Western: Lawrence Guy
The 2008 Warriors grad overcame ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia as a child to dominate as a high school defensive tackle with 238 tackles (171 solo), 30.5 sacks, and three fumble recoveries in three high school seasons. The success led him to Arizona State, where he started 31 of 35 games, racking up 122 tackles, 23 tackles for loss and eight sacks before departing early for the NFL draft. He was selected by the Green Bay Packers and later played for multiple other teams. His seven-year tenure with the Patriots marked his prime, as he played in over 100 games and was a member of the 2019 Super Bowl championship team. He retired in 2024.
Alternative education: Andre Agassi
The man who put Southern Nevada on the sports map. After training at the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, Agassi studied via correspondence courses before turning pro in 1986. Within a year, it was clear he was on his way to rivaling Elvis, Martin and Sinatra as a Vegas headliner, only he was headlining on the tennis court. By 1992, he won Wimbledon, the first of his eventual eight Grand Slam singles titles. By 1995, he was No. 1 in the world. Although he dealt with injuries and depression in 1997, he returned two years later to win his first and only French Open championship and his second U.S. Open title.
Charter schools: Tristan Thompson
It should come as no surprise that Findlay Prep produced more professional athletes than any other Southern Nevada charter school before closing in 2019. More than a dozen made the NBA, including Thompson. The 2010 grad was a five-star recruit who earned McDonald’s All-American honors. After playing a single college season at Texas, he was drafted fourth overall in the 2011 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The starting center achieved pop-culture fame while helping the Cavaliers win the 2016 NBA title. At one point, he played in 447 consecutive games, retiring after 13 seasons with averages of 8.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.
