SOUTH FAYETTE, Pa. — Though the Steelers fell shy of their Super Bowl dreams, Pittsburgh will still be represented in New Orleans this weekend.
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Justin Watson is a South Fayette High School graduate who never forgot his roots.
“South Fayette is the foundation for my love of football,” Watson said earlier this week. “I still live by those core tenets we learned - attitude and effort. That’s the one thing that Coach (Joe) Rossi said you can control every day, whether you’re playing for a state championship or here in the Super Bowl.”
Watson won two WPIAL titles and a PIAA championship at South Fayette. Though he graduated from the district over a decade ago, his relationships with those who helped him along the way are as strong as ever.
His former calculus teacher Maureen Sirc proudly claims the title of Justin’s favorite teacher.
“(I’m) unbelievably proud,” she told Channel 11. “He is the only person that I have ever bet on, I have ever gone through and said ‘I’m willing to place a bet,’ and it’s always just on Justin.
Mark Keener is now the athletic director at South Fayette but was one of Watson’s high school basketball coaches. He recalled Watson’s work ethic above all else.
“We couldn’t keep him away,” he said. “They’d make these long runs in the football state championships, and our coach would be like ‘Stay home for three days.’ He’d be there the next day. We had to make him go home.”
It’s those qualities that not only formed a legacy but made seeing the hometown kid on the sport’s biggest stage that much sweeter for people like Joe Rossi, Watson’s high school football coach.
“To be a kid, to turn on a game and to see he’s doing that at such a high level is something that our kids can say ‘Hey, I can achieve this too,’” said Rossi.
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