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   TITLE:   A KEEN SENSE OF WORTH

   AUTHOR:   BY MARK MADDEN, POST-GAZETTE SPORTS WRITER

   SOURCETAG:   9601100762

   PUBDATE:   960225

   TDATE:   Sunday, February 25, 1996

   EDITION:   TWO STAR

   SECTION:   SPORTS

   PAGE:   C-1

   ILLUSTRATION:   PHOTO (2)

   CAPTION:   PHOTO: Tony Tye/Post-Gazette: Andre Watson and wrestling
   teammate Josh Drewitz rest, listen to coach.

   PHOTO: Tony Tye/Post-Gazette: Andre Watson, right, has wrestled in two
   open tournaments for Pitt's team, but has yet to make a regular
   appearance.

   LEAD:   It would be nice to say you can't tell Andre Watson is blind.

   Nice, but inaccurate.

   REST:

   Watson, a wrestler at Pitt, makes his way around campus with aid of a
   cane. He holds onto a teammate's arm or shoulder when the Panthers run
   laps in the wrestling room. When he loses his grip, he runs into a
   wall. It has happened.

   And when it does, his teammates do the nicest thing possible. They
   laugh.

   "The other guys tease Andre in the locker room," said Coach Rande
   Stottlemyer. "They make light of (his being blind). 'Hey, watch that
   wall.' But that just shows their respect for Andre, how much they
   accept him.

   "These guys prey on each other's shortcomings. If a guy's fat, or if
   he's losing his hair, the others let him know about it. Well, Andre's
   blind. And these guys do not spare the rod with him. He's one of the
   guys."

   Said a smiling Watson, "Sure, I run into the wall sometimes. It
   happens. And the guys laugh, but that's good. I don't want treated any
   different."

   Added sophomore Larry Sprecher, "Andre's great. We were at a luncheon,
   and I told the other guys at the table not to tell him where his pie
   was because I wanted to eat it. We kid with him, he kids with us."

   But there's no kidding about one thing.

   Andre Watson is a competent wrestler.

   Watson is a sophomore walk-on using his first year of eligibility. He
   hasn't competed in one of Pitt's regular meets, but has wrestled in
   two open tournaments, a common practice in college for backups and
   redshirts.

   Said John Withrow, a 167-pound redshirt with two years of eligibility
   remaining, "Andre's pretty strong, and he has a good feel for
   everything. In some ways, he has a better feel for certain things than
   a top-notch wrestler does, because he has to visualize something and
   do it without seeing it.

   "He's legitimately pretty good. Just inexperienced." Watson has a
   reputation for being competitive.

   Said 158-pound walk-on Josh Drewitz, Watson's frequent workout
   partner, ''If you get him in a predicament, he'll spaz out. He hates
   to lose."

   Watson is 0-3, 0-1 at the Penn State Open and 0-2 at the Edinboro
   Open, which included a respectable, 11-3 loss to Edinboro redshirt
   Tony Robie, who finished fifth at 158 pounds at the 1995 NCAA
   tournament.

   "He's not super, but he's not bad," said Robie. "When they called us
   up and I saw that he was blind, I was real surprised. But afterward,
   well, I've wrestled a lot worse. He's kind of strong, and he doesn't
   quit.

   "I give him a lot of respect. He has a lot of courage."

   Watson also lost 9-3 to Allegheny's Eddie Vass at the Edinboro Open,
   with Vass opening up his margin of victory late.

   "I lost, but I felt pretty good after that one," said Watson. "I was
   competitive. I had a chance to win. I lost because I lack experience.
   I made some silly things that caused me to lose. But I felt good. It
   wasn't ugly.

   "The nationally ranked guy (Robie) took me for a ride, though."

   Watson thought he wrestled adequately, but was hardly happy with that:

   "I think some people thought, 'Oh, at least he's out there trying,'
   but that's not good enough for me."

   Watson, 19, attended Central High School in Philadelphia, wrestling
   for three seasons. He went 14-2 at 171 pounds as a senior. He didn't
   wrestle as a freshman at Pitt, but decided to walk on this season.

   "For his situation, he does pretty well," said Stottlemyer. "He's not
   a great technician, but he has skills. He's real tenacious. And he's a
   pretty good scrambler. He can put together a flurry, a fast sequence."

   Said Watson, "I'm not sure I'm really at a disadvantage. It's
   definitely not as bad as a lot of people might think. I have a good
   sense of body motion. I have an inkling of when people are going to do
   certain moves.

   "My main weakness isn't blindness. It's inexperience."

   Watson is accorded little special treatment by the rules. The only
   major thing: Wrestlers may never totally break contact when a blind
   wrestler is involved. When wrestlers are brought back to a standing
   position by the referee, they must touch hands before resuming
   wrestling.

   "If not for that rule, I wouldn't be doing this," Watson said. "It
   doesn't determine the better wrestler. In high school, a kid broke
   contact, then shot on my legs. The ref didn't do anything. But I got
   out of it."

   Watson wasn't born blind.

   He was diagnosed as having pinkeye at age 7 and, while that was being
   treated, it was noticed that one of his retinas was detached.
   Eventually, the other retina became detached as well. He said "12 or
   13 surgeries" were performed to correct his condition, but the retinas
   wouldn't stay attached.

   He was legally blind when he was 9. Now, he has no sight.

   "The operations would work at first, then things would deteriorate,"
   Watson said. "The doctors didn't know why, or why things spread."

   Watson discovered wrestling in high school.

   "When I was younger, I had dreams of playing football," Watson said.
   ''But then, later on, I still wanted to do something. I wanted to be
   involved. So I wrestled. I had a lot of fun. But I never thought I'd
   do it in college.

   "When I first started wrestling in high school, not everyone took me
   seriously. But, by my senior year, people knew I was no pushover."

   Watson does get pushed around sometimes. All of Pitt's walk-ons do
   when they serve as practice fodder for the starting lineup.

   "I'm in there with some pretty good, experienced wrestlers,' said
   Watson. ''I get my lumps and bumps. Everybody here does. It's not
   frustrating at all. I'm here to learn. Stiff competition makes you
   better.

   "The guys go after me like anyone else. They don't pity me."

   Watson's blindness isn't immediately noticeable when you watch him
   work out, although his moves seem exaggerated, made with wasted
   motion.

   Said Josh Drewitz, "I think that's because he's trying to make really
   sure he's in position to make a move. He sets his moves up too much.
   He never likes to take shots because he's not sure where your legs
   are. He likes to get your hands. If he has those, he pretty much knows
   where everything else is."

   Watson evens the odds with his teammates occasionally.

   "I've blindfolded a couple for workouts," Watson said, grinning. "But
   it really doesn't make much difference. A good wrestler will still
   take me down. But it gives them a different perspective. And
   afterward, they use that perspective to tell me what they think I
   should be working on."

   Said Drewitz, "He's blindfolded me. It's intimidating at first but, to
   tell the truth, it doesn't hinder you as much as you'd think."

   Watson will wrestle on even terms with foes at the end of March. He'll
   compete in the national tournament for blind wrestlers in Indiana.

   "No cut on blind wrestlers, because I'm sure there will be some good
   ones in Indiana," he said, "but I doubt that very many of them will
   have faced the competition I've faced just practicing with Pitt."

   Said Larry Sprecher, a sophomore who wrestles at 150 pounds, "We drove
   up to the Edinboro tournament together, and we talked a little bit
   about the blind nationals. A lot of people seem to think, 'Oh, he's
   training for blind nationals.' But his goal is to be good for Pitt.

   "He doesn't want to be good for a blind person. He wants to be good."

   The odds are against Watson -- or any walk-on for that matter --
   making an impact on Pitt's wrestling program, but he does set an
   example for his teammates.

   "Andre doesn't look at being blind as a stumbling block," said
   Stottlemyer. "He looks at it as a stepping stone."

   Said Withrow, "Whenever we're doing something he can't do, like
   sprints, he doesn't stand around. He gets on the (exercise) bike. When
   you see him work hard ... how can anyone else possibly have an excuse
   for not working hard? Some say he's handicapped. I say Andre has a
   bigger heart than anyone."

   Watson sets an example for himself, too.

   "No sense feeling sorry for myself," he said. "Doing things like
   wrestling keeps me going. I'd like to think I serve as an inspiration
   to other people, too, not just blind people, but people who are afraid
   to try things because they think they're not good enough. You should
   always try."

   Even if you run into a wall.

   "We all run into walls in this sport," said Drewitz, laughing.

   "Thing about Andre is, he has an excuse. He just never uses it."

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