Ledyard — There is some danger in heaping excessive praise on high school kids, their still brief life experiences perhaps belying any true stabs at greatness, in an “underdeveloped but oversold” sort of way.

Plus, it cheapens the words for when they really count.

And so there was this good fortune Wednesday afternoon on the turfed lawn of Bill Mignault Field and its surrounding track, two high school seniors for whom ample superlatives apply, two reigning Day Players of the Year, on opposing track teams.

Josh Mooney, the Stonington whiz kid, named The Day’s Male Athlete of the Year for all of 2022, the defending state decathlon champion and basically conqueror of anything one can hurdle in Connecticut.

James Green, aptly nicknamed “The Playmaker,” The Day’s 2022 Football Player of the Year, who isn’t so bad at track, either.

The mission for an inquiring mind: See if these two lads know each other.

The answer: Game knows game.

“Do I know James?” Mooney said. “You mean ‘Mr. Quadfather’ over there?”

Turns out Mooney and Green go back a few years. Seems Mooney asked Green for his leg workout during sophomore year. Mooney could see what the rest of us do. Green’s quads are big enough to have their own four-wheel drive.

“Do I know Josh?” Green said. “I like Josh. He's cool. What he does is amazing. Dominates all the events. He’s going to UConn for the decathlon, not just hurdles.”

Green and Mooney spent some time kibitzing Wednesday as shin splints gave Mooney the day off. They talked about this and that — and even about Mooney’s love/hate relationship with math. Two regular kids who have done great things. Already. And before the conversation ended, Mooney, from a standing position, executed a backflip. Stuck the landing, too.

Imagine: In a 30-second span, this young man who may be Connecticut’s best overall high school athlete, was a regular kid with math issues and an athletic savant simultaneously.

He did all of it on the same lawn that Green owned in the fall. Green and the Colonels won their division and made the state playoffs. They beat Windham on a Friday night in November before a full house, their own version of The Game They’ll Never Forget. Now comes track season, way more anonymous. Green and football buddies Jackson Poulton and Jacob Lenz were part of a victorious relay Wednesday. And about 2,000 fewer people saw it than the Windham game.

“It's fun having the spotlight in football, but it's also nice not to have it because we can relax and be ourselves more,” Green said. “So it's a good feeling, but it's like two polar opposites.”

The byplay of Mooney and Green was notable for many reasons, highlighted by actual undertones of respect and mutual admiration. Is this even allowed anymore? Don’t all the cultural arbiters on social media wave trash talk’s flag now, telling us fuddy duddies that part of the game is “getting in the other guy’s head?”

And then two of the best kids we have in this corner of the world show us otherwise.

Lordy, there’s hope after all.

“Track is more friendly than all the other sports. We all try to support our competitors,” Green said. “Of course, you don't want them to beat you, but you support them. Like I talked with Josh earlier today. It’s more of a friendly competition in track than it’s like any other sport.”

And what trash talk would apply to the reigning state decathlon champ anyway?

“If there’s any trash talk anywhere, I like to stay out of it. It's not really my thing,” Mooney said. “I like to let my actions speak. I know what I can do. I trust myself. Talk all you want to me but it's not going to work.”

Green: “When you do well, you don't even have to say anything. The scoreboard shows it.”

Somebody ought to make their words into a poster.

A good day, Wednesday. Forget about the athletic accomplishments of Josh Mooney and James Green. Clearly, they’ve been taught well. They did a good bit of teaching here for the rest of us, too.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro