Former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch will be honored this summer when he is inducted into the National High School Football Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2025.
Batch joined the Steelers in 2002 and spent 11 seasons in the black and gold, including being a part of the team's Super Bowl XL and XLIII championship teams.
Batch played high school football at Steel Valley in Homestead, Pa. Batch started for Steel Valley in 1990 and 1991, leading the school to a No. 1 ranking and the WPIAL Class AA semifinals his senior year. Batch was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2019.
"I was definitely shocked when I received the news," said Batch. "I was like, wow. You just never think about that, especially the further removed you are from high school. That was my initial thought process. Something that happened over 30 years ago and they're rehashing that and ultimately putting a class together.
"So, it's really cool to be nominated, number one. And then obviously being accepting is definitely humbling."
Batch, who went on to play at Eastern Michigan after his high school days, was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft where he spent four seasons before signing with the hometown Steelers.
But it was that time in high school where his love of football really grew, and he loves seeing other young athletes experience that same type of love for the game.
"When you're young, you just want to be around your friends and sports allows you to do that," said Batch. "And then when you're playing football, and the first name of your youth football organization is the Homestead Steelers, you want to be a part of that.
"Having the opportunity as a kid to play in Three Rivers Stadium, whether that was seven-on-seven football at that time, which obviously it wasn't as big at that time as it is now. But then having the opportunity to be part of WPIAL Saturday, being a part of that and seeing the success that Steel Valley has had, that's where you ultimately want to be. The ultimate goal was the WPIAL Championships. Winning the WPIAL was a big deal.
"I remember as we were growing up, in high school we wanted to play down at Three Rivers Stadium because they had just replaced the turf. We wanted to be the first to actually play on that turf. To ultimately play there was really cool.
"And now, that has grown even more, with Friday night high school football games, and the WPIAL Championships still being played at Acrisure Stadium.
"It was really cool to be a part of it."
The Class of 2025 will be enshrined in Canton, Ohio on June 14.
