When Sehome incoming senior Andre Watson began playing flag football in the second grade, he was not the fastest, strongest, tallest or most-skilled player on his team.
Watson’s father, Derrick Watson, recalls Andre’s championship game in fifth grade against a team that had not lost in three years. Andre was in the backfield on the 3-yard line with six seconds left. When the ball was snapped, Andre was wide open in the end zone and the ball hit his face and rolled through the back of the end zone.
“By the time he found the ball, the game was over,” Derrick said. “He came off the sideline crying and said, ‘I’ll never drop another pass again.’ Since that day, he has caught 100 footballs a day.”
The 5-foot-10, 185-pound wide receiver and defensive back has now skyrocketed into one of the top players in the Northwest Conference. Since Andre has not announced the offers he has received, he remains unranked.
Yet, he is considered by several coaches as a three-star recruit. Sehome head coach Brian Young, who took the job in 2023, had heard some stories about the young athlete.
“I heard Andre was outspoken and difficult,” Young said. “When I met Andre, I knew he was a great human being. He just needed a way to express himself.”
Andre believes he was labeled a troublemaker because of his childhood in Ferndale. Being Black in an overwhelmingly white community, Andre felt like he was under a microscope.
“It was rough dealing with a lot of racism when I was young,” Andre said. “The first couple of years were rocky, but I had a couple close friends going through it with me and had my family to support me. I knew I had someone to lean on and knew I wanted to play football. I was ready to go through whatever I had to play.”
From Young’s perspective, Andre was a young man struggling to be academically eligible and survive in a difficult culture.
“He had to protect himself,” said Young, who is also Black. “We sat down with Andre and discussed some of the struggles. He can admit he needed to change some of his behavior, but some of it was the people who put him in this position and thought of him this way.”
He recalled one time he was singled out for wearing a hat in the classroom when his friends who were also wearing hats and acting out avoided punishment.
When the pandemic hit, the Watson family knew Andre needed a new environment to flourish. He transferred to Bellingham Public Schools in eighth grade, played for the Bellingham Knights Pop Warner football team and prepared for his freshman year at Sehome in the 2021–22 school year.
“Ever since I moved to Sehome freshman year, everything has flipped,” Andre said.
At Sehome, Andre didn’t want to stray down the wrong path. He leaned on his teachers, staff, coaches and teammates for support.
“Priority one is who you are off the field,” Young said. “If you can’t stay out of trouble, you are no good to anybody. Some of those teachers who were struggling with Andre, you don’t hear that anymore. Teammates who didn’t understand him don’t have that anymore. All of that has come 180 degrees.”
Now, Andre jokes with his teammates, provides a safe place to talk, speaks to incoming freshmen about the program and coaches younger athletes on and off the field.
“The biggest thing I have seen is Andre wants to get other people in the community excited and involved in what makes him excited,” Derrick said. “That wasn’t happening before. It was a drive contained in himself.”
When the school year starts, the senior loves to spot bright-eyed freshmen with backpacks larger than themselves. Young has seen Andre guide them around until they’re situated.
“You see a lot of kids with the same potential being pulled left and right and it is hard for them to say no and not be the cool guy,” Derrick said. “Andre learned quickly that getting out of the way is the cool thing and people respect him for it.”
Andre also excels in track and field, where he helped Sehome boys team capture the 2A state championship as a sophomore in 2022 by running a leg on the winning 4X100-meter relay team.
On the field, Andre had two dominant seasons in one of the toughest football conferences in the state.
As a sophomore, Andre finished with 48 receptions for 698 yards and nine touchdowns. He also rushed for 30 yards, returned kickoffs and punts for a combined 210 yards and picked up 18 tackles and seven interceptions on defense.
As a junior, Andre broke the Mariners’ record for catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in a season and career. He also earned first-team all-Northwest Conference honors by racking up 65 receptions, 851 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“The film shows I am a playmaker and can catch the ball when it’s thrown to me,” Watson said. “This year, I am ready to be fast. I have been working on my speed and explosiveness, and I am ready to show it off.”
This season, the Sehome squad is hoping to capture a state title. But Young is focused on a different kind of legacy.
“The legacy I want [Andre] to leave is not some records people find on the internet,” Young said. “The legacy I want him to leave with is when players look like him, they are not automatically judged in a negative aspect. They’re looked upon like Andre Watson. I want that to be a good thing for him and every senior that walks through Sehome’s halls.”
As Andre’s notoriety grows, the spotlight around him shines brighter.
“Andre is learning when you are in a unique position and the environment as a person of color, everything we do is under a larger microscope,” Young said. “When he grows in this community and gets out into the world, the dynamic spins and he will be prepared for it. That light shines when it’s good but shines brighter when it’s bad.”
One spotlight he’s comfortable being under: the football field. He is eager to showcase his skills to every player who lines up against him this season.
“Coming out of Ferndale, I was in a shell,” Andre said. “I didn’t want to be myself, but coach and my dad have helped me express who I am and know I can be different than everybody else. I will be more vocal and make people understand what we have to do if we want to win.”
Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN's sports reporter; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
