Blake McLimans, Class of 2008

When both of your parents are over 6 feet tall, it was a given fact that Blake McLimans, would grow to be one of the tallest athletics to ever participate in sports at Hamburg High School.  The only question would be: what sport would he excel in, considering his late father, Jeff, was a standout pitcher and former Hamburg JV baseball coach? For Blake, who would grow to become 6’10” it would be three sports; as he was a 3-year varsity letterman in volleyball, basketball and baseball.

During his senior year (2007-08), he averaged 19.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.7 blocked shots and 4.0 assists, and was named ECIC II player of the year leading the basketball team to its first divisional championship since 1990. Blake finished his basketball career at Hamburg as the all-time leader in blocked shots (208), fourth all-time in scoring (968) and fifth in rebounding (553). Also, during his senior year, Blake was named All-WNY- 2nd team in Volleyball and on the diamond, he was named All-WNY-honorable mention while co-captaining and leading the team to its first baseball sectional championship in school history. Trifecta! What a year! At the end of Blake’s high school career, he had the difficult decision to either play baseball at West Virginia University or take his chances going to prep school for a year to get recruited in basketball. The decision was made late in his senior year to attend Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and take his chances on the court. Because Blake was a three-sport star he didn’t participate in AAU basketball and therefore wasn’t on the radar of big-time Division I programs during basketball recruitment, so Worcester became a great decision. After just 3 weeks at prep school, he decided to commit to the University of Michigan to play basketball on a full scholarship, coached by Buffalo’s own John Beilein. During his time at Michigan, he helped the team to a BIG TEN championship in 2012 and was a member of the 2013 team which made it to the national championship game.

Blake graduated Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Currently, Blake is the Vice President of Revenue at RFX and lives in Tampa, FL.