Post, award dedicated to player, coach killed in March
Deion Pittman returned to the Waterford Youth Football family as a coach after graduating high school
Waterford — Deion Pittman didn’t have a lot of time in his life for magical moments. At 22, the Waterford High School graduate was killed in March when a Massachusetts man drove a stolen pickup truck through a red light and into the car where Pittman was sitting in the passenger seat.
But one of the magical moments in Pittman’s football career will be immortalized now: The goal post at the far end of the Waterford Youth Football home field, which, as of Saturday night, bears his name in honor of a game-winning field goal he kicked on an October night in 2008.
Pittman, who returned to the Waterford Youth Football family as a coach after he graduated high school, also will be remembered in an annual award, given in his honor, to young players.
It’s a fitting tribute to a man who was a Lancer through and through, his father, Michael Pittman, said.
“He just loved being here, when he played and when he coached,” he said Saturday, surrounded by his son’s former teammates, coaches and friends.
Following a spring and sum-
mer during which Waterford football families regularly came to the Pittmans’ door to check on them, Taeza Pittman said, the gesture shows what Waterford football is about.
“It’s a whole lot more than wins and losses,” she said Saturday before Waterford’s game against New London. “It’s family.”
Deion Pittman rose to the challenge as a high schooler when the Waterford team needed a quarterback, then again on that night in October when they needed him to make the field goal, and then again when he left college and returned to Waterford to coach the league’s younger players for two seasons.
The award in his honor, which was given to 13-yearold quarterback Ethan Lee in a surprise ceremony Saturday, is meant to recognize players who show they can embrace a challenge, like Deion Pittman did. Lee’s teammates cheered for him Saturday evening when his name was called, and the teenager walked to the middle of the field to take pictures.
Later, when the protective padding on the goal post was turned around and showed new, white letters reading “Deion’s post,” his parents cried, hugged the coaches, then walked over to pose for group pictures.
Deion Pittman was cut out to be a coach, league Football Manager Chris Muckle said.
“This kids took to him,” he said. “He was a leader — he was just that kind of kid.”