Catholic Memorial football star Guerby Lambert makes the grade

WEST ROXBURY — Catholic Memorial coach John DiBiaso has an elite offensive lineman who is also an elite student.

When he came to CM, 6-foot-7, 300-pound Guerby Lambert had no designs on playing football at all.

“I came here for the academics and the brotherhood,” Lambert said at practice Wednesday. “I planned to play soccer and basketball. I didn’t come for football.”

Now, however, Lambert had scholarship offers from the likes of Ohio State and Alabama, and also Harvard and Yale.

It was on that soccer pitch that DiBiaso discovered Lambert, who was not the size he is now, but still on the bigger side.

“My first impression was, we were going to get him to play football,” DiBiaso said. “And after we got him out here, we noticed he had great feet from soccer, naturally, you know, running around. He was very light on his feet. I remembered something they said about Patrick Ewing when he played basketball. They said he had great feet for a big man because he played soccer as a young kid. I remembered that, and this was very similar.”

You can see that nimble nature in Lambert today. As the starting right tackle for the Knights, on Wednesday, he hustled out into the secondary to block a safety on a screen pass. It is the type of play that makes most offensive linemen look robotic, but not Lambert. He is fluid in his movements and able to make blocks others can’t.

“He’s very loose in his hips,” DiBiaso said. “He’s flexible. He’s got all those intangibles that you just can’t teach.”

Another quality sought in an offensive lineman is someone who “plays mean.” That doesn’t comes as natural to Lambert.

“People call me a gentle giant usually,” Lambert said. “When I play football, I feel like I flip a switch when I’m playing.”

And Lambert puts his smarts to good use when he’s diagnosing something on the gridiron.

“I’ll give you another SAT word. He’s very cerebral,” DiBiaso said. “When you give him an assignment he thinks it through. He makes sure that the little details, the technique, footwork are always impeccable.”

It wasn’t always that way. For someone in his third year playing the sport in organized fashion, Lambert was a quick study, but there was a grace period. At first, he had a cursory knowledge of the game.

“I knew what an average fan would know,” Lambert sad. “I didn’t really pay attention to offensive linemen.”

Over time, though, that got better. And he was named the Catholic Conference Lineman of the Year in 2022. It took a bit for him to gain confidence in himself as a player.

“I think it was halfway through my sophomore year, because freshman year, everything was just so new to me,” Lambert said. “I was just trying to learn how to take the right steps and everything. I worked hard my freshman summer going into my sophomore year, and midway through, I just started picking everything up.”

Not a surprise that Lambert mastered something once he put his mind to it. He now plays on the same side as Brandon Sullivan, who will continue his career at Harvard.

For Lambert, the recruiting process was difficult, because he had so many good choices. In the end, he picked Notre Dame.

“It’s going to challenge me academically,” Lambert said. “It’s going to set me up for the next 40 years, but also it’s going to challenge me on the football field, as well.”

NAME: Guerby Lambert

SCHOOL: Catholic Memorial

AGE: 18

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-7, 300

POSITION: RT

NICKNAME: Guerb

FAMILY: (Father, mother, brothers and sisters): Father Kesner, mother Guerline, brother Ralph, sisters Keshanne and Guermayda

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Won Notre Dame Book Award, English Award, role model, Lineman of the Year

FAVORITE PERSONAL MOMENT IN SPORTS: State title 2021

FAVORITE COURSE IN SCHOOL: Math

LEAST FAVORITE COURSE IN SCHOOL: History

FAVORITE PIGOUT FOOD: Mac and cheese

FAVORITE TV SHOW: The Office

FAVORITE MOVIE: Lion King

FAVORITE MUSICIAN: Rod Wave

FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: NBA 2K

FAVORITE SMARTPHONE APP: Tik tok

FAVORITE TWITTER ACCOUNT TO FOLLOW: His mom

FAVORITE PRO TEAM: Patriots

FAVORITE ATHLETE: Sauce Gardner

HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A GAME: Pray