Say you want to get out and play a little football but you're not so young in body and can't take the hard knocks?
Thanks to ROAR Sports and New England Patriots tight end Ben Watson, you have the opportunity to hit the gridiron again.
Watson, who graduated from Northwestern High School and had a standout college career at Georgia, has agreed to partner with ROAR and form the Ben Watson/ROAR Community Flag Football League.
Watson will be in town June 14 to conduct a youth football clinic in conjunction with ROAR Sports.
"It's unbelievable that a pro athlete takes the time to come back and support his community," said Brian Jones, ROAR's sports director. "Ben cares and really wants to be a part of what we're doing. I think it's great."
Registration begins Monday online. Go to roarsports.org for an application. The cost is $50 per person and Jones said scholarships are available.
Games will be played this summer at Westminster Park at the end on India Hook next to the river. The park has two lighted fields. Watson will conduct his clinic there from 10 a.m.-noon.
There will be five leagues. Youth leagues are available for players in grades 2-3, 4-5 and 6-8. The adults leagues are broken down to 18-and-up, which is open to everyone, and 33-and-up.
Barry Byers • 329-4099All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Great article about Ben and family in the State paper
Sports
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Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
Sports
Posted on Tue, Jan. 29, 2008
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Super Bowl ties Patriots' Ben Watson of Rock Hill follows two callings
S.C. native and Patriots tight end has let his faith guide him on and off the field
By JACKIE MACMULLAN - The Boston Globe
When Benjamin Watson was barely 4 years old, already having mastered the proper technique for a three-point football stance, he tugged earnestly at his father’s sleeve.
“Dad,” he said. “Can you put me in the closet?”
“Why, son? Why should I do that?” his father, pastor Ken Watson, responded.
“So you can announce my name,” Benjamin answered. “So I can run onto the football field.”
And so began a family ritual. Young Benjamin, crammed in with the coats, would patiently wait as his father declared in a booming voice, “Now, starting at running back for the Washington Redskins, No. 45, Benjamin Watson æ.æ.æ. ”
At that moment, the boy would bust out, arms raised, eyes fixed straight ahead on the dream in front of him.
“Ever since I can remember,” said Ken Watson, “if you asked Benjamin what he wanted to be when he grew up, he’d answer, ‘I want to be a football player and a missionary.’ ”
Twenty-three years later, Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson is an NFL starter, an integral part of an unbeaten team that will try to cap its perfect season with a victory against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday.
Watson’s career is approaching its zenith, yet as he has established himself as a respected member of the Patriots, he simultaneously has answered the call of his faith. Last week, while his teammates enjoyed a three-day hiatus from football, Watson formally kicked off his “One More” Foundation, created to promote educational and enrichment opportunities through charitable programs.
“So much of football relates to Christian life: sacrifice, commitment, discipline,” Watson said. “I know God has a plan for me. I don’t know what it is. After football? Who knows? My grandmother and my father always said I would end up as a missionary. Well, I feel like I am one now.”
INQUISITIVE MIND
The genesis of that calling came when he was a child in Rock Hill as he engaged in bedtime talks with his mother, Diana, about her beliefs.
“He’d ask me spiritual questions he wouldn’t ask when the light was on,” Diana Watson said. “Questions about Jesus, about sins, about heaven. He was very inquisitive. He was looking for answers.”
Because his dad was a pastor, Watson and his five siblings spent each summer tagging along to Christian camps. Benjamin found himself transfixed by the words of his father, whom he admired fervently. Once, after the family returned from a retreat with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Benjamin’s friends came over to toss a football. Instead, they were given a sermon by a solemn 7-year-old intent on spreading the word of God.
“The kids were all sitting on the curb, listening to Benjamin talk,” Ken Watson said. “He was telling them how important it was to give your life to the Lord. I was like, ‘Wow.’ ”
Faith needs time to grow and develop. Benjamin was not a perfect child. He was too competitive, a sore loser.
As Watson grew older and excelled in football, his father reminded him to praise God in the midst of his failures as well as his successes.
“I told him his love for God should be the same when he was dropping the ball as when he was catching a touchdown,” Ken Watson said.
Faith is not something to turn on and off like a faucet, although many athletes have been criticized for doing just that. The reason some people have an aversion to athletes who publicly praise Christ, Ken Watson said, is that occasionally the athletes come off as inconsistent, even hypocritical.
“I think when people see athletes being very demonstrative on the field about their relationship with God, they also want to see what they do once the game is over,” he explained. “If you are pointing your finger to the sky and praising the Lord after you score a touchdown, then you get off the field and you’re a bum, well, who is going to believe in you?”
COLLEGE AWAKENING
When Benjamin accepted a scholarship to Duke to play football, his mother worried his values would be skewed by the adulation so readily thrust upon sports heroes. Watson found college to be an awakening.
There were temptations everywhere: coed dorms, late nights, wild parties. Hardly any of his friends went to church. Even fewer talked about God.
“You grow up a certain way, and you make decisions within your family,” Watson said. “But then you go to college and the decisions become harder. You are away from home, from the influence of your parents, dealing with peer pressure. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in college.”
He immersed himself in his football experience, but the Duke team was horrible. The team struggled to a 3-8 mark in 1999, his freshman season, and the losing wore on him.
Watson transferred to Georgia, where the temptations were the same, even greater, but he took his father’s advice and learned to anticipate trouble long before it cornered him. He became involved in FCA and discovered kindred spirits.
He earned second-team all-SEC honors as a senior and was selected by the Patriots in the first round of the 2004 draft.
TRYING ROOKIE SEASON
Expectations were high for the chiseled tight end, but in the second game of his rookie season, Watson injured his knee and was placed on injured reserve. The Patriots cruised to a 14-2 record without him and beat Philadelphia in Super Bowl XXXIX.
“It was so hard,” Watson said. “First of all, you know how it is with our team (keeping injury news quiet). No one could know. It was almost two years before the media realized I had suffered a torn ACL. I felt I had to keep it to myself.
“Somehow you ended up feeling like it’s your fault, like you are holding on to this bad secret, like you are letting people down.”
He tried to interact with the team, but injured players are apart from the hub of activity. By necessity, the team must focus on who can help it on the field.
“The train moves on,” Watson said. “On days like that, when you are feeling secluded from everyone else, you have to remember that who you are as a football player does not measure your worth as a person. What matters is who you are in Christ.”
Watson does not preach to his Patriots teammates like he did when he spread his message to his neighborhood pals. He hopes his actions speak for him. Watson is the FCA spokesperson and donates his time to food banks, the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, and Habitat for Humanity.
PLATFORM FOR VIEW
His mother wonders if Watson will become a pastor when he retires from the NFL.
“He has a platform now,” Diana Watson said, “if he chooses to use it.”
Ken Watson has heard his son speak many times. The most impressive, he said, was last summer when Benjamin addressed 800 football players at Northwestern, his old high school in Rock Hill.
He talked about his long rookie season, watching the Patriots win it all without any contribution from him.
“He told them how he didn’t feel a part of the team, until one day Tom Brady walked up to him and said, ‘Ben, we’re going to win you a Super Bowl ring,’ ” Ken Watson said. “The night of the game, Benjamin stood on the sideline and was part of the team. Did he do anything to help them win? No, but he was part of something bigger than individual glory, just as God is.”
Benjamin Watson is healthy for this Super Bowl. He proved it by leveling a number of San Diego Chargers with some bone-crunching blocks during the Patriots’ AFC championship game win last week.
“I’m watching the final minutes of that game, and I’m saying, ‘Lord, please don’t let this kid get hurt,’ ” Ken Watson said. “He deserves this chance. He’s come a long way from the closet.”
document.write(today_string());
Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
Sports
Posted on Tue, Jan. 29, 2008
reprint or license print email
Digg it del.icio.us AIM
Super Bowl ties Patriots' Ben Watson of Rock Hill follows two callings
S.C. native and Patriots tight end has let his faith guide him on and off the field
By JACKIE MACMULLAN - The Boston Globe
When Benjamin Watson was barely 4 years old, already having mastered the proper technique for a three-point football stance, he tugged earnestly at his father’s sleeve.
“Dad,” he said. “Can you put me in the closet?”
“Why, son? Why should I do that?” his father, pastor Ken Watson, responded.
“So you can announce my name,” Benjamin answered. “So I can run onto the football field.”
And so began a family ritual. Young Benjamin, crammed in with the coats, would patiently wait as his father declared in a booming voice, “Now, starting at running back for the Washington Redskins, No. 45, Benjamin Watson æ.æ.æ. ”
At that moment, the boy would bust out, arms raised, eyes fixed straight ahead on the dream in front of him.
“Ever since I can remember,” said Ken Watson, “if you asked Benjamin what he wanted to be when he grew up, he’d answer, ‘I want to be a football player and a missionary.’ ”
Twenty-three years later, Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson is an NFL starter, an integral part of an unbeaten team that will try to cap its perfect season with a victory against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday.
Watson’s career is approaching its zenith, yet as he has established himself as a respected member of the Patriots, he simultaneously has answered the call of his faith. Last week, while his teammates enjoyed a three-day hiatus from football, Watson formally kicked off his “One More” Foundation, created to promote educational and enrichment opportunities through charitable programs.
“So much of football relates to Christian life: sacrifice, commitment, discipline,” Watson said. “I know God has a plan for me. I don’t know what it is. After football? Who knows? My grandmother and my father always said I would end up as a missionary. Well, I feel like I am one now.”
INQUISITIVE MIND
The genesis of that calling came when he was a child in Rock Hill as he engaged in bedtime talks with his mother, Diana, about her beliefs.
“He’d ask me spiritual questions he wouldn’t ask when the light was on,” Diana Watson said. “Questions about Jesus, about sins, about heaven. He was very inquisitive. He was looking for answers.”
Because his dad was a pastor, Watson and his five siblings spent each summer tagging along to Christian camps. Benjamin found himself transfixed by the words of his father, whom he admired fervently. Once, after the family returned from a retreat with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Benjamin’s friends came over to toss a football. Instead, they were given a sermon by a solemn 7-year-old intent on spreading the word of God.
“The kids were all sitting on the curb, listening to Benjamin talk,” Ken Watson said. “He was telling them how important it was to give your life to the Lord. I was like, ‘Wow.’ ”
Faith needs time to grow and develop. Benjamin was not a perfect child. He was too competitive, a sore loser.
As Watson grew older and excelled in football, his father reminded him to praise God in the midst of his failures as well as his successes.
“I told him his love for God should be the same when he was dropping the ball as when he was catching a touchdown,” Ken Watson said.
Faith is not something to turn on and off like a faucet, although many athletes have been criticized for doing just that. The reason some people have an aversion to athletes who publicly praise Christ, Ken Watson said, is that occasionally the athletes come off as inconsistent, even hypocritical.
“I think when people see athletes being very demonstrative on the field about their relationship with God, they also want to see what they do once the game is over,” he explained. “If you are pointing your finger to the sky and praising the Lord after you score a touchdown, then you get off the field and you’re a bum, well, who is going to believe in you?”
COLLEGE AWAKENING
When Benjamin accepted a scholarship to Duke to play football, his mother worried his values would be skewed by the adulation so readily thrust upon sports heroes. Watson found college to be an awakening.
There were temptations everywhere: coed dorms, late nights, wild parties. Hardly any of his friends went to church. Even fewer talked about God.
“You grow up a certain way, and you make decisions within your family,” Watson said. “But then you go to college and the decisions become harder. You are away from home, from the influence of your parents, dealing with peer pressure. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in college.”
He immersed himself in his football experience, but the Duke team was horrible. The team struggled to a 3-8 mark in 1999, his freshman season, and the losing wore on him.
Watson transferred to Georgia, where the temptations were the same, even greater, but he took his father’s advice and learned to anticipate trouble long before it cornered him. He became involved in FCA and discovered kindred spirits.
He earned second-team all-SEC honors as a senior and was selected by the Patriots in the first round of the 2004 draft.
TRYING ROOKIE SEASON
Expectations were high for the chiseled tight end, but in the second game of his rookie season, Watson injured his knee and was placed on injured reserve. The Patriots cruised to a 14-2 record without him and beat Philadelphia in Super Bowl XXXIX.
“It was so hard,” Watson said. “First of all, you know how it is with our team (keeping injury news quiet). No one could know. It was almost two years before the media realized I had suffered a torn ACL. I felt I had to keep it to myself.
“Somehow you ended up feeling like it’s your fault, like you are holding on to this bad secret, like you are letting people down.”
He tried to interact with the team, but injured players are apart from the hub of activity. By necessity, the team must focus on who can help it on the field.
“The train moves on,” Watson said. “On days like that, when you are feeling secluded from everyone else, you have to remember that who you are as a football player does not measure your worth as a person. What matters is who you are in Christ.”
Watson does not preach to his Patriots teammates like he did when he spread his message to his neighborhood pals. He hopes his actions speak for him. Watson is the FCA spokesperson and donates his time to food banks, the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, and Habitat for Humanity.
PLATFORM FOR VIEW
His mother wonders if Watson will become a pastor when he retires from the NFL.
“He has a platform now,” Diana Watson said, “if he chooses to use it.”
Ken Watson has heard his son speak many times. The most impressive, he said, was last summer when Benjamin addressed 800 football players at Northwestern, his old high school in Rock Hill.
He talked about his long rookie season, watching the Patriots win it all without any contribution from him.
“He told them how he didn’t feel a part of the team, until one day Tom Brady walked up to him and said, ‘Ben, we’re going to win you a Super Bowl ring,’ ” Ken Watson said. “The night of the game, Benjamin stood on the sideline and was part of the team. Did he do anything to help them win? No, but he was part of something bigger than individual glory, just as God is.”
Benjamin Watson is healthy for this Super Bowl. He proved it by leveling a number of San Diego Chargers with some bone-crunching blocks during the Patriots’ AFC championship game win last week.
“I’m watching the final minutes of that game, and I’m saying, ‘Lord, please don’t let this kid get hurt,’ ” Ken Watson said. “He deserves this chance. He’s come a long way from the closet.”
Friday, January 11, 2008
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