By Gene Schallenberg
In front of their friends, families and classmates, X’Zavious Harrison, Kyren Watts and his twin brother Tyren Watts fulfilled lifelong dreams as they signed scholarship offers Wednesday afternoon to play college football.
Harrison completed a long-standing promise to Stephen F. Austin and sent in his letter of intent first thing Wednesday morning.
After multiple visits to various schools at the last minute, the Watts brothers signed scholarships to play at Kilgore College.
“This feels good,” Harrison said. “It’s a lot of attention, but it feels pretty good. It’s kind of like when I made those two free throws to go to state (in last year’s Region III final against Gladewater Sabine). It feels good to know that I’ll be playing at the next level.”
Classes were let out a little early so that the whole school could be in attendance as the three seniors made their plans known to their classmates.
“It means a lot to me to have everybody here,” Harrison said. “It’s a small town, but the community stays together. That’s one thing I can say about New Waverly. The community stays together. That’s all that matters really.”
Wednesday’s signing presentation held special meaning for Harrison.
“It’s a big thing because (my parents) wanted me to do something with my life,” he said. “They wanted me to play basketball. I thought I was going to play basketball, but football did the trick.”
Harrison, who played defensive back along with various positions on offense the past three years, is one of four defensive backs in Stephen F. Austin’s 25-player signing class.
“I’ll be playing defensive back. That’s my favorite position. Coach (Paul) Donelson (former New Waverly defensive coordinator) was the one that made me love safety, just like he did.
“I’ll have a chance to prove myself. I’m looking forward to it.”
After schools like Texas, Rice and UTEP made contact with Harrison and even saw him play in person, it was SFA that made him an offer. Harrison couldn’t pass up that opportunity and stuck with the commitment he made as a junior.
“That’s like the first step of life to me, starting off as a man,” Harrison said. “I committed to them and kept my word to them.”
Harrison was glad to have made his decision official with his family watching.
“It’s pretty nice,” Harrison explained. “I can’t explain it in words, but it’s pretty nice.”
The road has been long for Tyren and Kyren Watts, but they finally attained what they hoped for since they were welcomed into the New Waverly community four and a half years ago after being stranded while evacuating with their family from Hurricane Katrina.
The twin brothers got an opportunity to stay in New Waverly where they could get a better education than they otherwise could in New Orleans and make a name for themselves playing sports.
Now, they get to continue playing football and get a free education also.
“We came a long way, me and K.Y., to even think about college,” Tyren Watts said. “We’re just thankful that God put us in the right place. If it wasn’t for God and for all these people here, who knows where we would be? To get to this point is a blessing.”
“We always dreamed about it, but never thought we could do it,” Kyren Watts said. “It was real hard, especially coming to a place that you don’t know anything about it. But I’m glad all that happened. It couldn’t have turned out better for us.”
Like they have their whole lives, the twin brothers are sticking together as they both head to Kilgore College. They know there’s a possibility that after one or two years, they may have to split up and go to different schools, but they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.
“This next year, it’s not going to be anything new,” Kyren Watts said. “I feed off my brother, my brother feeds off me.
“I don’t know if we’re going to go our separate ways after that year. If we stay together, we stay together. If we don’t, we don’t. I would miss my brother, but I know I wouldn’t have to worry about him.”
Harrison and the Watts brothers played an integral part in bringing the New Waverly athletic program to prominence in both football and basketball.
As freshmen, they saw the Bulldogs football team win just one game and the basketball team fall short in the area round of the playoffs.
With Harrison and the Watts brothers becoming principal players, the football team improved dramatically and won outright district championships in 2008, advancing to the Class 2A Division II regional semifinals, and 2009.
The basketball team went to the state tournament in Austin the past two seasons and played in the state championship game last March.
The trio hopes to make it three in a row and they have a good chance at accomplishing that. The Dogs are the state’s top-ranked team as they have been all season and are four victories away from sweeping their way to a third straight outright district championship.
“We’re happy with what we’ve accomplished,” Tyren Watts said. “But we’re not finished. We’re grateful that we accomplished a lot of great things, but we’re still not satisfied with it. We haven’t got what we really wanted yet. We’ve been working hard since we were freshmen. We just want to finish what we started.”
New Waverly athletic director and head football coach Ken Craig was proud to see his players take such a big step and hopes that Wednesday’s signing ceremony is just the first of many for the Bulldogs. He hopes that signing day gatherings become a tradition at New Waverly High.
“It’s like seeing one of your sons because you’ve invested so much of your life into theirs,” Craig said. “You get a sense of pride in what they’ve done. ... They’ve obviously been a tremendous part of our athletic program and school life at New Waverly. We just look forward to seeing the good things that they do down the road.
“I wanted to have that ceremony in front of the school because I want these younger kids sitting there. When your whole school’s sitting there and hanging onto every word you’re saying, that’s a special time. Nobody was messing around or talking. They wanted to hear what was said. I want them to have the desire to be there talking. It’s just one of those things that you’d like to start as a tradition.”
