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Community Corner

On the Sidelines with Lynn Erenberg

Peters Township resident Lynn Erenberg learned more than she ever expected to learn about football when she married a former pro baller, with whom she raises their two football-playing sons.

Around this time each year, you’ll hear a lot of people describe their families as “a football family,” many of whom use the phrase loosely to express their love for football and excitement over the start of the NFL and high school football seasons. For Peters Township resident Lynn Erenberg, however, the phrase is an entirely accurate and literal description of her family life.

Lynn is married to former Steelers running back . Their sons , 17, and , 16, are on the Indians football team. Because the men she loves are so heavily entrenched in the game, so too is Lynn.

From laundering her sons’ uniforms and picking up their cleats in the hallways to going over the finer points of the sport and watching them play each week on the field, football is an integral part of Lynn’s every-day life.

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We sat down with her to find out more about what it’s like being the lady behind and beside three football players. At the outset of our discussion, Lynn made one thing quite clear: while her family may be a football family, it’s always family, not football, that comes first.

With a father like Rich, Lynn’s sons were probably born with football in their blood. But, she said, neither she nor Rich automatically expected or required their boys to play the sport just because their father did. They left that decision up to their kids.

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“Children won’t have success or enjoy an extracurricular activity if their parents are forcing them into it,” Lynn said.

She went on to explain how she and her husband encouraged their sons to select whichever sports or activities most interested them, stipulating only that they remain active and committed to their selections.

Early on, the boys selected football as their chosen sport, though each has other sports interests as well.

Both Andrew, PTHS running back and safety, and Michael, PTHS wide receiver and corner, began playing football at age 6, as part of the youth program offered through the Peters Township Junior Football Association. Rich coached the league during the time the boys were on it, until Michael turned 12 and entered middle school, Lynn said.

Even when Michael took a two-year break from the sport, Lynn said she and Rich remained supportive and helped him find other things that interested him. It was Michael who decided to return to football, not to satisfy his parents but because he missed the game.

Now that her sons are both players on the PTHS football team, Lynn said she enjoys seeing them on the field together, as this is something she’ll probably never get to see again after Andrew graduates at the end of this school year.

But she expects that she’ll see Andrew play on a college field next year. Andrew has already received Division 1 and Division 1-AA offers to play in college. Schools such as Kent State, Fordham University and Duquesne University have shown interest in him.

Lynn said that Andrew will be touring these, and other, colleges over the next few months to gather information to help him decide which school is best for him, with his academic interests ahead of his athletic ones.

Placing education before athletics is something Andrew’s father did. Lynn told us that Rich had entertained several significant Division 1 offers back in his day, but chose to attend Colgate University in New York, which didn’t give out any athletic money at the time. He chose Colgate, she said, because he was interested in the academic programs offered there.

Rich was drafted by the Steelers in 1984 and retired in 1987, after injuring his knee and receiving his ninth knee surgery. What he took with him after he retired from the pro sport, Lynn said, was a strong sense of discipline and hard work, which carried over into his success as a businessman as well as into his success as a dad.

“The motto in our home is ‘hard work makes dreams come true,’” Lynn remarked.

The hard work that Lynn’s sons put into each day involves a very rigorous schedule, according to Lynn. They attend high school classes during the school day, football practice after school, and do homework when they get home. This cycle, she said, repeats without fail, giving them great structure in their lives.

Within that structure, Lynn said that her first concern, as a mother, is her sons’ safety. She then values their happiness and their success, in that order. As per success, Lynn and Rich have their own measure:

“We tell our sons that what’s most important isn’t whether you’re winning or losing or whether you’re a starter or an average player. What’s most important is what you learn from the game and carry over into other aspects of your life.”

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