Matt Ryan's Quaker High School Holds Super Bowl Pep Rally
EAST FALLS (CBS) -- When they kick-off Sunday's Super Bowl, everyone at the William Penn Charter School will be cheering for one of their own, Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Matt Ryan, from the class of 2003. The school held a pep rally in East Falls for their star in Houston.
Students jammed Dooney Field House off School House Lane to celebrate the school, and Matt Ryan. It wasn't that long ago that Ryan, now in his ninth NFL season, hardly threw the ball. He was a 6' 4" triple-option high school quarterback tearing it up on any field on which the Quakers played. Now Falcon's star has punched a ticket to the big game, by throwing tight spirals all season long, as the NFL's second leading passer (he threw for more than 4900 yards and 38 touchdowns this season).
A former quarterback, Brian McCloskey, a 1982 Penn Charter graduate, has been a teacher there for 30-years, and he was the football coach between 1995-and-2007, coaching Matt Ryan.
"I kid with Matt now, I told him 'listen, we didn't throw the ball that much in high school. Therefore, I saved your arm, so you've got all of those throws in you now," coach McCloskey joked. "I didn't wear you out."
William Penn founded the school in 1689, and it hasn't strayed from its Quaker roots. McCloskey said it's a perfect fit with Ryan's low-key style, on and off the field.
"He's always been the individual that he is. He hasn't changed, he's a well-grounded young man, and his parents did a tremendous job."
The school gave a Superbowl ticket to McCloskey that the Ryan family had reserved. He packed quickly and grabbed a flight to Houston, to view his former star QB from the stands.
To cap off the rally, a group of students composed and sang a personalized football cheer for the guy whose nickname from his Penn Charter days still sticks: "Matty Ice."
