From the freshmen pit, to the varsity lights, three teammates battled through four seasons of football and will continue to do so on the fields at Robert Morris University next fall.

“I chose Robert Morris [to] stay with my closest friends, Matt Lawson, senior, said. “We’ve helped each other a lot throughout our years at LZ and I want to continue that experience.”

All the boys  agreed that Robert Morris would accommodate them financially and  further their friendships  within the football program.

“I had a good junior year during varsity, but I blew out my knee during senior year. All the big schools that I attracted eventually forgot about me, but Robert Morris reached out and gave me a chance I had to take,” Kyle Roth, senior, said.

According to Roth, the Robert Morris football program is very involved and will better suit his capabilities. He has no intentions of playing professional football and said his friends attending with him felt the same way.

Throughout football season, the team focused more on team building and building personal skills in order to bond with one another.

“All the years being together and playing together are what made us close friends. The hard parts are what brought us together. When we lost games, or when we weren’t looking good in practice, we pushed each other [to work] harder,” Derrick Juarez, senior, said.

Roth has known Juarez since sixth grade. They both met Lawson during freshmen year while on the freshmen team.   

Each of the players agreed that a successful high school experience strengthened them as friends and have in a way better prepared them for the new experiences that await in college.

“You meet your lifelong friends in college,” Roth said. “I’m excited but I couldn’t be happier continuing football with Matt and Derrick.”