Pop Watson Stands Out From Start
Central Freshman QB William “Pop” Watson has the Golden Eagles playing for their second straight state title.
hype (hīp): noun ~ extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion.
He was never going to “live up to the hype” as a freshman quarterback at Central High School this season, precisely because — by definition — there was no hype for William Watson III to live up to.
In a time when seemingly everything is overhyped, Watson, who goes by Pop, was thoroughly underhyped coming into the 2019 football season.
And that was by design.
“We’re not really about hype,” says his father Bill Watson, who has served as Pop’s coach throughout his life, including his current stint as Central’s offensive coordinator.
“I don’t feel like I have to hype him or say he’s this or say he’s that. I kind of feel like, ‘Let’s put him out there. If you know the game and you know what you’re looking at, you’ll come to your own conclusion.’”
Sure, Pop was well-known from his youth days starring as quarterback for the SYF Tigers and as a standout basketball player.
The scholarship he landed from UMass during a camp this past summer, before ever taking a high school snap, certainly opened eyes.
But there wasn’t a ton of publicity or promotion about him being the day-one starter for a stacked squad that had won the region’s first-ever state championship just months earlier; and certainly nothing that would qualify as extravagant or intensive by any means.
Pop was a spectator a year ago when the Golden Eagles beat Tewksbury 20–7 for last year’s state title. At the time, he was thinking about being out there himself.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” he laughs.
And here we are, exactly where those connected to the Central program expected to be; one game away from a second straight state championship in a matchup against Duxbury High School at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.
“It would be special,” Pop says. “I’d be at a loss for words.”
In 11 games this year, Pop has completed more than 67 percent of his passes (130–194) for 2,374 yards while rushing for another 355 yards and accounting for 34 total touchdowns with just four interceptions.
As much as a state championship would put a stamp on a sensational freshman season, it wouldn’t be about him.
“It’d be a great team accomplishment,” his father says. “The thing about football is it’s a team game. You can’t really accomplish anything on your own. If he wanted individual acclaim, he probably would have got into boxing or played tennis or something, but he plays team sports.”
And like the talented distributor he is, Pop is quick to pass the credit to all of the playmakers around him and the offensive line in front of him.
“They’re the reason I get as much credit as I do now,” he says of the skill position players he’s tasked with getting the ball to.
“And that o-line, they help me as much as anything. Without them, we’d be in shambles.”
That was certainly on display during Central’s 64–33 win over St. John’s of Shrewsbury in last month’s state semifinal, where Pop finished 17-for-25 for 285 yards and three touchdowns while adding three more scores on the ground.
A dual-threat quarterback with a live arm, Pop’s physical gifts are obvious even to the untrained eye, but it’s the poise he’s displayed while running the show that has truly impressed his father.
“He’s my son, so I ride him real hard,” Bill Watson says. “I’m on every little thing, but he doesn’t get rattled. The moment is never too big for him.”
Makes sense considering his nickname was given to him by his paternal grandfather who said the youngster possessed an old soul.
“He thought he was the father and we were the kids,” Bill remembers. “So we started saying, ‘Here goes Pop, bossing us around.’ And it stuck.”
Bill points to Pop’s extreme confidence.
“It’s real confidence,” he continues. “Not telling people he’s confident and then going out there and playing scared. He goes out there and plays with an undeniable confidence that I can’t even relate to because I didn’t have that type of confidence as a freshman.”
A former high school quarterback, Bill reluctantly acknowledges his son is better than he was at the same age.
“I’ve got some people back home who will argue that, but me knowing where I was at his age, he’s better than me,” he says.
That likely accounts for some of that confidence, but Pop points the finger back at his dad.
“That’s from him,” Pop says. “Every time we go over something, I just feel confident in what he’s telling me, so when I go out there, I don’t really think too much.
“I trust him with everything. I feel like I can talk to him about whatever. Me and him just have a different connection than everybody else.”
Bill Watson came up to Springfield from Brooklyn in 1992 to play football at AIC. Even before getting to Massachusetts, he knew he wanted to coach when he was done playing, an idea that was cemented when he filled in for his ailing stepfather to call his own plays as a 16-year-old back in New York.
“I always had a love for that part of the game,” he says. “Thinking of the game as a chess match.”
So, when he finished up at AIC, he got into coaching, starting as an assistant and ultimately the head coach at Putnam.
Pop started playing at the age of six for the Springfield Longhorns. But after a couple of seasons in Pop Warner, Bill founded and coached the SYF Tigers, an elite program that entered American Youth Football, a league with no weight limit.
“I just wanted to make football better in Springfield,” says Bill, whose own son wouldn’t have had to worry about making weight.
“I’ve always had the mindset that we had some elite players and elite athletes out here, I just thought there was a bad structure starting from youth with the development to high school.”
That SYF program has helped provide the backbone of the current Central squad with contributors like Pop, Isaac Boston, Dante Bolden, Tyson Thornton, Terry Lockett, Joe Griffin, Marcus Crawford, Travis Gause and Brendan Guy among those who spent their youth days with the Tigers.
When those guys were still youngsters doing fundraisers to support their latest trip to Florida for a national tournament, it was clear to anyone paying attention that Central was on the verge of the kind of success it’s staring at now.
Bill had an idea what kind of success may lay in front of his son early on, but says it can be difficult to objectively judge your own child.
“I think everybody started seeing it and it was undeniable by the time he got to sixth grade,” he continues. “It’s one thing to talk about your own, but when you hear other people and how they talk about him and the things they were saying about his ability and the plays he was making, I knew we were on to something and he had the opportunity to be special.”
So, he pushed him.
But more importantly, Pop pushed himself.
While Pop credits his father with making him the person and player he is today, Bill swats down much of that.
“99 percent of it is him,” he says. “He puts the work in. His work ethic is what I think separates him from a lot of people.”
Pop has been waking up for 6 a.m. workouts since he was in seventh grade, when he’d go through drills with high school kids. Even when he himself was too young to lift weights, he’d have his own regimen in addition to the running. And ever since he’s been able to lift, he’s never missed a workout.
He spent a good chunk of this past offseason refining his game with Excel Sports Academy in Springfield.
“He really doesn’t complain,” says Bill. “That’s how I know he’s ready because he has that work ethic that the great football players have.”
While at Putnam, Bill bonded with Central head coach Valdamar Brower and already had relationships with Golden Eagle assistants Tommy Guy and Julius Walker, who both played at AIC after him, making the move to Central an easy one.
After one year as defensive coordinator, he’s spent the last six as the offensive coordinator.
He gives his quarterbacks plenty of freedom to run the system and with the extra time he gets with Pop at home, Pop’s development is even further along than usual.
“Sometimes, he does something that I don’t understand and I probably go crazy at the time,” Bill laughs. “He doesn’t pay attention to the noise I make. He listens to me and knows where I’m coming from when I’m hooting and hollering, so he doesn’t take it any way.”
“I know it’s always for the best, so I never get mad at him,” Pop explains.
The 6-foot, 170-pound freshman understands his father is going to continue pushing him throughout his career.
“We want to work on his arm strength, we want to work on his reads and getting rid of the ball quicker,” Bill says. “He’s doing a great job at it now, but you’d love to see him continue to develop at those things.”
Those are the types of things that will come naturally as Pop grows and matures, but Bill adds, “We want to kind of accelerate that.”
Pop’s career is off to such a great start that it’s almost hard to believe what is possible.
“First and foremost, we want to win this state championship this year,” Bill says. “If you’re talking about long-term goals, I want him to win as many state championships as possible. He’s starting as a freshman, so there will perhaps be an opportunity to play in four, so shoot for all four.”
And as for his career beyond Central, the opportunities could be just as eye-popping. Three games into the season, Pop added a scholarship offer from Boston College to the one he already had from UMass. That list will undoubtedly grow, but that’s not the current focus.
“We’re just locked in on this game,” says Bill. “We’ve got a great opponent. Duxbury is a great team, great program. We’ve got our work cut out for us and everything is full with that alone, so that’s been the focus right now.”
While sports plays a major role in their relationship, it’ll never define it.
“I let him know, I love him, so there’s nothing he can do in sports that’s ever going to change that,” Bill explains. “If he does great and comes home, he’s still got chores to do and work to do. He’s still the same guy in the house.
“If he has a bad game, he’s still going to come home, we’re still going to love him up. We’re probably going to lock in and watch film and have our conversation, but after we have our conversation, it’s over and it’s on to the next thing.”
Bill stresses the fact that his son is far more important than any game.
“It’s big, we want to go hard at it, we want to be successful at it, but at the end of the day, I want him to be successful as a person more than being successful as an athlete. To me, this game is helping him become a man and that’s what I’m looking for most before any stats or any wins and losses. I just want him to become a man and understand what hard work means and dealing with adversity means and perseverance.”
