LOCKPORT — Lockport-area coaches and former athletes remember Green Bay Packers running back James Starks as a fierce competitor and outstanding athlete, but ironically, not as a future National Football League star.

Starks, a graduate of Niagara Falls High School and the University at Buffalo, was a former standout football player for the Wolverines, where he played quarterback, running back and wide receiver, and was also the “Sixth Man” of the NFHS state-championship basketball team.

After missing his senior year at UB, Starks went on suffer a different injury that wiped out about half of his rookie season with the Packers, but he’s since worked his way up from fourth in the depth chart to one of the Cinderella stories of the entire 2010-11 NFL season.

Starks, 24, was a sixth-round pick in the 2010 draft. After just 29 carries for 101 yards in three regular-season games this season, he’s gone to 70 carries for 263 yards in three NFC playoff games. That’s nearly 100 yards ahead of the next remaining back in the postseason, Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whom the Packers will meet in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6 in Dallas.

Retired LHS varsity football coach Mike Finn said Starks was a multiple threat as the NFHS quarterback and not easy to defend.

“James had a very strong arm, but he was certainly a major threat to run the ball at all times,” Finn said.

“During our Section VI championship season in 2003, we beat Niagara Falls 35-0, but he was one of those players who could take over a game at any time. The following year, we were beating them, then our running back, P.J. Harris, got hurt, and we ended up losing.

“James was a terrific athlete — very fast. You almost felt that if you could force him to pass, you had a better chance, because he was difficult to tackle — a big kid who was one of the better players in double-A football locally at the time,” Finn said.

Newfane varsity football coach and former Lockport all-star lineman Alex Haney, was a member of the Lions’ sectional championship team that held Starks in check in a shutout win in 2003 at Max D. Lederer Field behind Emmet Belknap Middle School.

“James was their quarterback then — their Mr. Everything — and he was certainly all of that,” Haney said.

“We had a good defense that year and a lot of people put us to the test, especially him. Back then he wasn’t nearly as big as he is now — he looks real frightening on TV — but he was quite large then, fast and always physically hard to bring down. He kicked me in the chin that game. I tackled him and he went down, but when I got up, I had blood all over my shirt.

“He was a fierce competitor — never happy to talk to us if we beat them — but he was a stand-up guy. No one ever thought of him as a cheap player. He was a great competitor. I enjoyed playing against him because it was always a challenge. That’s what I remember most,” Haney said.

Starks, 6-feet, 2-inches, 218 pounds, rushed for 123 yards in the Packers’ 21-16 wild-card win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 9 and followed that up with 66 yards on 25 carries in a 48-21 conference semifinal win at Atlanta. Against the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game last Sunday, Starks rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries in a  21-14 victory at Soldier Field.

Others with recollections about Starks include Lockport athletics director Patrick Burke, veteran Lions’ line coach Dave Arlington and the present LHS head football coach Greg Bronson.

“I just remember him as being an awesome athlete,” Burke said. “They put him in the shot-gun and he was difficult to stop because he was so unpredictable and a double threat to either pass or run the ball. He was also on the state-championship Niagara Falls basketball team that went on to be ranked No. 1 in the USA Today poll. The fact that he was the sixth man on that team shows you the talent that they had.”

Added Arlington, “I remember the first time that we played football against him. Every time he had the ball you just said a prayer, because anything could happen. We told our defensive line, ‘When you rush him, don’t rush past him, because he’s gone.’ I think his success in the NFL is great for everybody, especially for football in this area.”

Bronson described Starks as the “focal point” of Lockport’s efforts defensively against the Wolverines in that era.

“We had to account for him on every play. It was our belief  that you should let him throw the ball. We didn’t rush people as hard as we might against other teams,” Bronson said.

“We didn’t blitz him because we didn’t want to leave people in man coverage, not having eyes on the quarterback. We knew that if he broke through, he was gone before you had a chance to recover. We told our defensive lineman to keep him in front of you and don’t give him any lanes to run through and hopefully he’ll throw the ball and not run.”

Finn and Bronson said the emergence of Starks and the Gronkowski brothers in the NFL in recent years — coupled with state-championship titles in football for WNY schools that include Sweet Home and North Tonawanda — demonstrates that there is a tremendous amount of football talent coming out of this area.

“One of the big things about James is that when he first went to UB, they struggled finding a place for him — they tried him at defensive back, running back, quarterback and wide receiver — because he had such tremendous overall athletic ability, it was difficult pinpointing where he was best to use on the field. They found out eventually that running back was where he’d make his mark.

“I watched him at UB as a sophomore and recognized that he had outstanding potential with his combination of size, strength and speed, but at that time, I would not have projected him to be a future NFL player,” Finn said.

“Rob Gronkowski at Williamsville North (now playing with the New England Patriots) — I mean he was a man-child with his tremendous size alone in high school and you could tell he’d have a good chance to make it in the NFL, but I never projected that with James at that time.”

Finn said the success of Starks, the Gronkowski brothers (Rob-New England Patriots, Chris-Dallas Cowboys and Dan-Denver Broncos), as well as cornerback Corey Graham of the Chicago Bears, and others from Western New York, is a good sign.

“It really makes me feel good for Western New York football with James and the Gronkowski kids and Corey. I think it shows that Western New York football is very much underrated,” Finn said.

Bronson said Starks’ success, as well as the success of other former Bulls players speaks volumes about the job Turner Gill did as the UB head coach.

“Football here is not generally seen as being of the same quality as Pennsylvania or Ohio, not to mention Texas and Florida and other parts of the south, but their success gives kids here a lot of hope that if they have the athletic ability, do the grades and get into a good college program, there’s real hope they may be able to have an opportunity some day to play in the NFL.”