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McCoy among close-knit prep stars

HARRISBURG - Bring up Jameel Poteat in conversation and Eagles running back LeSean McCoy breaks into an ear-to-ear smile.

Ricky Watters and LeSean McCoy both starred at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg. (Chris Knight/The Patriot News)
Ricky Watters and LeSean McCoy both starred at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg. (Chris Knight/The Patriot News)Read more

HARRISBURG - Bring up Jameel Poteat in conversation and Eagles running back LeSean McCoy breaks into an ear-to-ear smile.

"Hey," McCoy exclaimed one day in the Eagles locker room. "He is a heck of a player. He is the next big thing."

McCoy knows whereof he speaks. Not long ago, he was "the next big thing" to come out of Bishop McDevitt High, which has produced such a wealth of fine ballcarriers through the years that it has become known as "Tailback High." The tradition goes back more than 25 years, beginning with the emergence of none other than former Eagles running back Ricky Watters. The year Watters was a junior - 1985 - McDevitt had three running backs who would go on to play Division I football: Watters (Notre Dame); Jimmy Bryant (Ohio State); and Sean Barowski (Penn State and later Syracuse).

But it is not just enough to be a star running back at "Tailback High." There is a tacit obligation to pave the way for others. Thus, Watters became a mentor for McCoy, who shattered Watters' single-season rushing records. In turn, McCoy has developed what he calls "a brotherly relationship" with Poteat, who eclipsed McCoy's record for career touchdowns. When Poteat heads off in the fall to the University of Cincinnati, he said he will keep an eye on whatever young freshman who enters Bishop McDevitt to take his place.

"What we have had here is a domino effect, a passing of the torch from one generation to the next," says athletic director Tommy Mealy, who, as a senior running back at Bishop McDevitt in 1995, rushed for 1,228 yards and 18 touchdowns. "Ricky, Jimmy and Sean set the standard for the others who followed: Dave Dawson [1,663 yards in 2000], who later played at the University of Buffalo; Jesse Pitt [1,236 yards in 2002], who played some junior college ball.

"Of course, then there was Shady," Mealy says of McCoy. "Close to 3,000 yards his junior year in 2004 [2,828 with 31 touchdowns]. And then we had Mike Jones [1,531 yards in 2007], who had replaced Shady when he broke his ankle during his senior year. And then Jameel came in."

Watters remembers the sense of community that existed at the small Catholic school, an old building that sits high up on a hill in the state capital. He also remembers how very helpful Bryant and Barowski were to him as seniors, how they "paved the way for me, accepted me and showed me how to work out properly." While Watters says "we were not one of the big boys [at Bishop McDevitt], we had the attitude that we could play with the big boys, and we always knew how to handle ourselves on and off the field." That foundation served him well during his career at Notre Dame and later in the NFL with the 49ers, Eagles and Seahawks. Done playing in 2001, he began showing an interest in the place where it began: Bishop McDevitt.

"I am a believer in karma," says Watters, who lives in Orlando, Fla., and occupies himself with various entrepreneurial enterprises. "Do from your heart, because someone did something for you. Pass it on. I remember a cousin told me, 'You have to see this young player they have at McDevitt. He reminds me of you.' Of course, he was referring to LeSean. So I saw him play. Great player! And then I spoke with him. Even a better person."

No one had to explain to McCoy who Watters was. He had aspired to become "the next Ricky Watters." Had Watters' No. 12 not been retired by the school, McCoy would have worn it. (Mealy says McCoy did wear it in some scrimmages.) Watters became close to McCoy during his junior year, during which he amassed some 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns during the District 1 playoffs. By that spring, McDevitt coach Jeff Weachter says McCoy had 76 college scholarship offers. Even then, then-USC coach Pete Carroll swung through Harrisburg to see him. While Watters acknowledges with a chuckle he did "talk up" Notre Dame to McCoy - who ultimately decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh - he remembered what it was like to be a young player just coming into his own.

"Some of what you do is offer advice, but some of it has to do with just saying, 'I know you can do it,' " Watters says. "But it was always so easy with him. And Poteat. Both of them are very respectful, eager to hear what you had to say. At the end of his rookie year, I encouraged LeSean to get into the weight room, and I think that showed in his play this year."

Watters chuckles and adds: "This year, I want to get him down here on the golf course and talk to him - give him some pointers on blocking. The coaches up there have done a fine job with him on that, but sometimes it helps hearing something from someone who has done it. Of course, I would like to see the Eagles give him the ball more. I think he could help the team more if he ran it more. But I am very proud of what he has done so far."

McCoy says it was a "big thing to me" when Watters became involved in his life.

"Each level of football he has helped me more," says McCoy, who attended Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y., for a year before entering Pitt. "At Bishop McDevitt, he would urge me to keep my grades up. And when it came to choosing a college, he just said, 'Pick a school you feel at home at.' Later, he told me, 'Always be a professional. Football is not just a game, but your job.' No one has ever given me better advice."

Because of McCoy's close relationship with Weachter, the Eagles' running back heard of Poteat early on. Weachter told him, "We have a special freshman out here. I would like you to take him under your wing." McCoy came out and sat down with Poteat, whose uncle Hank Poteat had a 10-year NFL career as a cornerback with the Steelers, Buccaneers, Patriots, Jets and Browns. McCoy passed along to Jameel what Watters had passed along to him: guidance that only someone who experienced something himself could provide. The two have since become very close. McCoy attended McDevitt's season opener the last 2 years, and last year even stood on the sideline wearing a T-shirt with "POTEAT" on the back.

"Hey, he can run!" McCoy says. "And he is bigger than me and Ricky when we were that age. He is more physical than I was. And he is explosive. He is a heck of a player. And we have become friends."

Poteat smiles. "I whooped him in Madden on the phone the other day," says Poteat, who had 50 scholarship offers and had committed to Pitt before coach Dave Wannstedt was fired. "And whenever the Eagles play, I study what he does and we talk later. I remember the first game he saw me play, I had three fumbles. I was always trying to get that big touchdown run. And he told me: 'You have to work your way up - 3 yards here, 5 yards there, and then you break that long run.' To be in the same record book as him is something I have always used as motivation."

Poteat says McCoy has simply told him: "Stay focused, and one day you will have a chance to play on Sundays. And we can play against each other."

The young running back adds that he had always dreamed of being "the next Shady."

But Weachter corrected him. "I told him, 'Listen, you are not the next Shady McCoy. You are the first Jameel Poteat,' " says Weachter, who adds he has not had a running back in 13 years who was not offered a Division I scholarship. "He is a special young player."

So whom does Weachter have his eye on to replace Poteat and possibly become "the next big thing"?

The coach smiles.

He would not say who it is.

But he did say there is an incoming freshman out there.

And he runs the 40 in 4.5. *