CBS 58's Hometown Athlete: Messmer’s Vito Velazquez looks to break a legend's record
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Recently, junior guard Vito Velazquez passed the 1,000-point mark at Messmer High School.
"I still don't feel like it's that big. It's just another point to me, kind of, that I feel to me. But I'm still happy, though," Vito Velazquez says.
Maybe Vito will be happier his senior year, if he passes the school record of the legendary John Johnson, considered one of the best players ever out of Wisconsin.
"People will talk about me for years and decades on. So, my name will never be forgotten if I would get that," Velazquez says.
Velazquez certainly adds life to the school.
"When the shots go in, they're yelling, 'boom!'" Velazquez says. "I'm a big part of the culture here. I bring a lot of people to the game. So, we're gonna make more kids wanna come here and make Messmer basketball more winning as the years go on."
They've seen his game grow from 18 per game as a freshman to 25 sophomore year, to around 28 this junior season.
"The people who knew me, knew, like, that I could do that, because they played with me. But most people were shocked because they felt like a lot of freshmen wasn't doing that," Velazquez says.
But now he hopes he re-establishes the Messmer tradition.
"I knew a couple of the guys. We played in middle school and AAU together. So, they were kind of like telling me to come here. And the school is Catholic, so like, my parents and all, that was big for me coming here, too," Velazquez says.