Branden Alpert Drafted By Chiefs

 (Jim Daves/Virginia)

By: Keith Mills

Eight years ago, when Branden Albert was a sophomore at Glen Burnie High School, he wasn't even a member of the Gophers football team, much less a potential first-round NFL draft pick.

"He didn't start playing until his junior year," said Pat Kostowski, Albert's offensive line coach at Glen Burnie during the 2002-03 seasons. "But he was a real good basketball player with great footwork. When he came out for football, you could tell right away he was going to be real good."

Kostowski was an assistant to head coach Brad Wilson at Glen Burnie when Albert decided to play football in 2002. One year later, Albert was 6-foot-7, 320 pounds and one of the top two-way high school linemen on the East Coast.

"The first thing you noticed was that athleticism," Kostkowski said. "He could really move, and he worked very hard."

The hard work paid off. Albert spent a year at Hargrave Military Academy before moving on to Virginia, where he was a three-year starter and the Cavaliers' team captain last fall. Last Saturday he was taken by the Kansas City Chiefs with the 13th pick of the NFL draft.

Albert mostly played guard at Virginia, but will be moved to left tackle in Kansas City. At Glen Burnie, he played right tackle on offense and nose guard on defense, but his best sport prior to his senior year at Glen Burnie was basketball.

Albert was a nasty post player on the basketball court with great hands and amazing quickness for his size. Along with point guard Mitch Guest, he led Mike Rudd's 2003-04 Gophers to a 23-4 season and a berth in the state Class 4A state semifinals, where the Gophers lost to eventual state champ Northwestern.

But even though Albert was one of the area's premier two-sport athletes, he was overshadowed by a more publicized class of football and basketball players in 2003 and '04 that included Erin Henderson, Brady Smith and Melvin Alaeze in football and Rudy Gay and Will Thomas in basketball.

Albert, though, has clearly risen above his fellow football players in the class of '03. Henderson left Maryland one year early for the NFL but was not drafted last weekend. Smith was recently dismissed from the Boston College football team after he was charged with sexual assault and breaking and entering, while Aleaze is serving an eight-year prison sentence for his role in a shooting and robbery two years ago.

Albert, meanwhile, heads to Kansas City as a young man on a mission.

Issue 3.18: May 1, 2008