OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Oak Ridge native Tee Higgins is going to be playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday.
The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver began his journey to the NFL in East Tennessee when he played at Oak Ridge High School.
The community is excited to be represented in the big game, including his former head coach when he played for the Wildcats.
"It's thrilling to see him have the success he's had both in college, they won the national championship his sophomore year at Clemson and now this is essentially his sophomore season in the NFL so hopefully he can have history repeat itself," former Oak Ridge High School head coach Joe Gaddis told WBIR.
Higgins has over 1,000 yards receiving and six receiving touchdowns this season. Gaddis had an inkling Higgins could really be successful as a sophomore in high school.
"The guy in practice would make the most acrobatic catches that I've ever seen a human make, or a non-human for that matter, that he is just incredible," he said. "I think those moments as I saw him that he did the same things in live games, in real games I felt like this catches were special but was common for him. He was a man among boys in high school, at Clemson he was great, in the NFL he's also great and going to get better."
Gaddis will of course be cheering hard for his former wide receiver on Sunday.
"One, I hope Cincinnati just wins the Super Bowl, first of all, so he can get a ring," he said. "Secondly, it would be icing on the cake if he had a great game as he did in the championship game a couple of weeks ago."
Gaddis is proud of Tee Higgins the football player, but even more of who he is as a person.
"Tee is unchanged. He is very rich, he's going to get richer, but if you talk to Tee Higgins, he's just the same kid he was here," he said. "I called him a kid, he's obviously a man. But he's the same person he was here at Oak Ridge high school a few years ago."