Former Steeler offers life lessons at annual YMCA dinner
FRANKLIN TWP — Charlie Batch offered three pieces of advice Thursday night to a crowd at The Atrium.
Be ready. Be resilient. Be a pro.
Batch, former Steelers quarterback, television personality and YMCA supporter, was the keynote speaker at Butler County YMCA's annual celebration dinner.
Batch, a native of Homestead, Allegheny County, said he had to be resilient when his younger sister was shot and killed, caught in the crossfire of gang violence, while he was attending college at Eastern Michigan University.
“I go home and all my boys are waiting on me, they said, 'Charlie, we know who did this, let's go get 'em,'” Batch said.
But Batch decided to step back from his emotions and avoid doing anything that would put his dream of playing professional football in jeopardy.
“I just didn't want to sit in jail for the rest of my life,” he said.
After retiring from football at the end of the 2012-13 season, Batch got involved with the media and with his Best of the Batch Foundation, through which he runs a youth basketball league in Pittsburgh. He also became a regular at his YMCA.
“The Y is an important part of the community. I deal with it every day. I see the kids who are impacted by it,” he said.
A full story appears in Friday's Butler Eagle.
