The Sports Informant

When Austin Collie and the Indianapolis Colts earned a right to play in this weekend’s NFL Super Bowl, there was a collective cheer coming from much more than Indianapolis. All the way across the country, in the city of El Dorado Hills, Calif., friends and former colleagues of the rookie wide receiver got to share in the excitement, and just two days away from the big game, they are enjoying every minute of it.

“You can hear the kids talk about it,” said Steve White, current athletic director for Oak Ridge High School, Collie’s former stomping grounds. “For those who follow sports, this is kind of cool. It’s a lot of attention for a local celebrity.”

Media outlets have swarmed campus at Oak Ridge looking for a local angle on Super Bowl XLIV, finding it in Collie’s story.

“It’s the kind of attention we like,” White said. “We want to be in the public eye for the right reason. He’s a pretty great role model to be connected to. He’s a great person and has good family values.”

On the Colts’ bye week, the one-time Trojan superstar returned to his hometown to meet with the local youth football league in El Dorado Hills, signing autographs for the Jr. Trojans for half an hour.

“He doesn’t say no to anybody,” White said.

He’s become a fan favorite around the Sacramento area for more than just playing for the Colts. Several view Collie as the epitome of what an NFL player should be, a good model of what growing athletes in the area should look up to.

“He is living the right way and doing the right things,” said current Trojan head football coach Eric Cavaliere, an assistant coach when Collie played for Oak Ridge. “When a kid like that comes through you want the best for him. He worked himself in that position. It’s fun to see him reap those benefits.”

Collie earned a 4.0 grade-point average in high school, according to his profile on BYU’s Website. While he had a wealth of athletic awards thrown his way for his high school and college achievements, some of his proudest moments came in the classroom, or while on his 2-year church mission that took him away from football in the prime of his college career.

While other athletes in college prepped themselves for the pros, Collie went soul searching after his sophomore season. His return after the mission resulted in a junior season in which he led the entire nation in receiving.

While he’s one of the more talented athletes to ever come out of Northern California, it’s his work ethic that makes his former colleagues the proudest.

“We coached him as much as we coach anybody else, but he was a little more talented than most,” Cavaliere said. “He was definitely more driven than anyone we coached.”

And so the attention he gets, and the attention surrounding his hometown, is completely warranted.

“It’s one of those things where I get asked about (Collie) all the time,” Cavaliere said. “I never get tired of it. We just keep the buzz going.”

“It makes you proud,” Cavaliere added. “We had several guys go on and we’re proud of them all. But that’s an Oak Ridge Trojan playing on Sunday. He’s playing for the Colts now, but in my mind he’s an Oak Ridge Trojan.”

Cavaliere’s not ashamed to admit he’ll be rooting for the Colts Sunday, but not because Peyton Manning is fun to watch.

“I’m an Austin Collie fan,” Cavaliere said. “Any team he’s on, I gravitate toward that. We hoped he would have a great season, which he’s done.”

Collie highlights from AFC Championship