When Miles Sanders was growing up, his family never missed watching the Super Bowl on television.
These days, his mother never misses watching Sanders in person.
On Sunday night, almost unbelievably, the two collide for Marlene Sanders.
“This will be my first Super Bowl,” she said, “and I get to watch my son in it. Are you kidding me?”
Marlene Sanders couldn’t contain her excitement when reached by phone earlier this week, days before departing for Glendale, Ariz., to attend Super Bowl XLVII. Her son, who starred at Woodland Hills, is the leading rusher for the Philadelphia Eagles. Two other WPIAL alumni, Skyy Moore of Shady Side Academy and Justin Watson of South Fayette, are wide receivers for the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of alumni play in the Super Bowl,” former Woodland Hills coach Tim Bostard said, “but even in the years when no (Woodland Hills alumni) get there, you root for the kids that you hear about from around here and are just really proud they hold up the tradition of Western Pa. football that’s been established over the years.”
Sanders’ appearance is the ninth (by five players) for a Woodland Hills graduate over the past 15 Super Bowls. But for South Fayette, it hasn’t happened for 27 years. And never has a Shady Side Academy alumnus played in the Super Bowl.
“It’s a huge deal for us,” SSA coach Chuck DiNardo said. “It’s so, so exciting for our community to come together and rally around. I have had so many different texts and exchanges with alumni that are just so excited, people talking about watch parties or getting together, be it in New York or around here, to watch the Super Bowl and root on Skyy. It’s definitely pretty cool.”
The WPIAL doesn’t provide the only local angles Sunday. Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox was a 3½-year starter at Pitt, and Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni has strong ties to Western Pennsylvania.
Sirianni’s brother, Mike, has been the head coach at Washington & Jefferson for 20 seasons. Their mother, the former Amy Wladyka, grew up on 10th Avenue in Harrison and attended the old Har-Brack High School.
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Amy and her husband, Fran, live in Jamestown, N.Y., now. But when reached via phone Thursday, Amy said she was in Pittsburgh with family members preparing for a flight to Arizona to watch Nick try to win a Super Bowl in his second season as an NFL head coach.
Maddox, in his fifth season with the Eagles, is their starting slot cornerback when healthy. He has been cleared to play Sunday despite a toe injury that limited him over the past month.
“Avonte is one of the best leaders and most ferocious competitors I’ve had the honor to coach,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said through a school spokesman. “His success and longevity in the NFL comes as no surprise to any of us at Pitt. In addition to being an outstanding player, he is just a great person, and we are all rooting for him to get that Super Bowl ring this weekend.”
The South Fayette community has someone to root for, too, for the first time since 1996, when tight end Jonathan Hayes was playing for the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.
Few predicted Watson would play in a Super Bowl. While Sanders was a five-star recruit who went to Penn State, Watson was a zero-star recruit who ended up at Penn.
“Kudos to him,” South Fayette coach Joe Rossi said. “His work ethic got him there (to a Super Bowl).”
Watson set the WPIAL season record for receiving yards (1,568) on 73 catches with 22 touchdowns in 2013. Four years later, he was the Ivy League’s career receiving yards (2,675) record holder.
Still, no Penn player had been an NFL draft pick for 16 years. And none had played in a Super Bowl.
“As a kid, he had a dream he’d play in a Super Bowl,” Watson’s father, Doug, said this week, “but even when he got to Penn, we were just happy he was going (to school at Penn).”
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Watson became a fifth-round pick. He has lasted five NFL seasons.
And Sunday is the second time he has been part of a team in the Super Bowl.
Two years ago with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, though, Watson was not in uniform. He still got a Super Bowl ring, but this time, barring something unforeseen (Watson missed the AFC championship, for example, because of illness), he will play on the biggest of stages.
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“He worked so hard to get there,” said Doug Watson, who will be at State Farm Stadium with his wife, Terri, two of Justin’s siblings and Justin’s wife and sister-in-law. “I’m sure we are going to be nervous. That (AFC championship), that was the most nervous I’d ever been watching a game.”
The Chiefs won that game, in large part, because of a play by Moore. A rookie from New Kensington who went to college at Western Michigan, Moore’s 29-yard punt return with 30 seconds to play helped set up the winning field goal.
“If you know Skyy,” DiDardo said, “the lights are never too bright for Skyy in a game.”
Moore, in part, credited Watson (who’s 4½ years older) for mentoring him during his rookie season.
“The guys in my (position room),” Moore told reporters this week at media day in Glendale, referencing Watson, former Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster and two others, “… their leadership molded me into the receiver I am today.”
Sanders will join Rob Gronkowski (four times, plus once while injured), Lousaka Polite, Steve Breaston and Ryan Mundy as Woodland Hills alumni to play in a Super Bowl.
“(Sanders) is one of the nicest players that we have ever had in Woodland Hills,” said George Novak, who was the school’s coach for its first 30 years of existence until 2016. “To be as tough, physical and competitive as he is — and then just have a great personality and be a team player? He has the full package.”
Speaking to reporters in Arizona on media day, Sanders called playing in a Super Bowl, “something you’ve dreamed of since you were little.”
“I grew up a Steelers fan,” he said, “so I am used to winning and seeing all the championships going on when I was growing up. So to be here and be in the same situation I used to be (watching) the Steelers in, it’s pretty awesome.”
Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at cadamski@triblive.com or via Twitter .