Pitt leaving his legacy at C.B. Aycock

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on September 12, 2014 1:48 PM

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Now, just months after graduation, Pitt is back home. He's coaching the sport he loves and teaching math at Wayne Academy.

"It's just a great story about a guy who wants to give back and he's coming home to do it," Brooks said. "We couldn't be happier to have him."

It was a move Pitt always expected to make. He often captained his football teams, and helped his fellow students in classes.

It made sense for him.

"The goal was to always be a coach," Pitt said. "I just want to give back some of the things that were given to me or some of the things that I learned, I just want to give those to our guys. I want to see these guys be successful as a person, not just as a football player."

Pitt understands success.

He played on the Golden Falcons' team that went 10-3 and reached the second round of the playoffs in 2009. That group was the first to win 10 games since 1981 -- the last time Aycock has won a conference championship on the gridiron.

That accomplishment gave Pitt a pedigree and helped establish him as an authority in the program. Then again, he's not much older than the players he's coaching.

Some of them grew up watching Pitt play on Friday nights.

"The coaching staff talks about that a lot," Pitt said. "Me teaching these guys and motivating these guys with me being young. I can relate to these guys and give them stories about college experiences that are real recent."

With either a clipboard in hand or standing at a chalkboard, Pitt has always wanted to give back to the community. He credits his former coaches and teachers.

He misses suiting up.

"The hardest part is I'm so used to playing on Friday nights," Pitt said. "Even though I've been gone a while, there's nothing like Friday night lights. Nothing can compare to it.

"I see the same thing in some of those guys that I see in myself. I see that they love to play the game, so to see those guys smiling and have fun it makes coaching easy. It's a great honor to be out there with those guys."

Pitt's passion for football is obvious.

It engulfs his life, and has provided many lessons such as mental toughness and digging deep when things get hard to handle. That's what he wants to pass down to the current group of Golden Falcons.

"Even if you're not playing football in college, you can relate football to life," he said. "When it's fourth down and the game rides on this play right here, it's just like if you're at home and you got a son, a daughter and a wife, and you got a bill to pay, lights and water to pay this week.

"You want to go to the mall or something, you want to go do this or that, but you got to pay that bill. Are you going to walk out on this fourth-and-one? Are you going to walk out on your family in a time of need? Football is all related to life."

Pitt traded in quarterback sacks and final exams for lesson plans and film study, which takes up a majority of his time. He's even busier now than he was either in high school or college.

He hopes all of his players reach the same levels of football, but not so much to feel what it's like to play on Saturday afternoon. It's using the football platform to earn an education and that piece of sheepskin -- which Pitt is most proud to have in his possession.

"A lot of people don't go to college and accomplish those things so that was a big honor to me," Pitt said. "I had a football scholarship. But I got my degree through football, you know? That's something I'm hoping these guys can go do."

It's one part of Pitt's legacy.

Now, it's on to the next part.

"I appreciate these guys having me on staff because there's no place like home," Pitt said.