Family matters: Family always comes first for WVU鈥檚 Gallagher
BlueGoldNews.com
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The morning session of last week’s Country Roads Trust’s youth football camp at Mountaineer Field had just wound up and campers were heading for the exit while players finished signing autographs and headed off for lunch.
Pretty soon only Rodney Gallagher III of the players remained behind chatting with a media type, ever gracious, ever willing to share thoughts on such matters as his first season as a Mountaineer and the decision to give him a chance this season not only to earn a starting wide receiver berth but to split time as a defensive back on occasion.
However, as the season draws closer there will be plenty of time to talk about such football matters. Instead, the conversation was directed toward speaking about one aspect of what helps create the special player that he is.
Family.
At West Virginia, a special emphasis has been placed upon the family atmosphere in the locker room and there is an expectation that players who come from close, well-defined families at home fit into the culture Neal Brown seeks.
The Gallaghers define that for surely they are a special family, who have banded together after the death of mother, Crystal, when Rodney was 7 years old and approached life as a unit devoted to each other.
“Me and all my siblings, we all got tighter when my mother passed when I was younger,” Gallagher said, his father, Rodney II, having taken on the burden of leading Rodney III and his older sisters, Alyssa and Kaylea, and younger sister, Summer, in the right direction, not only as athletes, the ability there taken care of genetically, but in both academic and social interactions.
“We all support each other in the best ways possible. Whatever we do, we all want to be there. We want to be the biggest supporter and the No. 1 fan.”
The sisters are at Rodney’s football games and whenever they can be together, they are, such as this spring when Rodney took them to a Drake concert in Pittsburgh.
Facing losing a special woman like Crystal (Fields) Gallagher, who was the all-time leading scorer at Albert Gallatin High School with 1,055 points when she graduated in 1992 and who went on to play at Fairmont State College, was difficult for some as young as Rodney and his sisters to comprehend.
“It was tough,” he admitted. “At the time it was hard for me to understand everything that was going on, but, as I got older and stuff, it got explained more to me. It’s still rough to this day. I know she is watching me and always has the best seat in the house.”
His dad, also a basketball star, brought everything together.
“My dad played a huge part in me growing up. For him sacrificing every day and taking me to the best places to continue to be a better player, it just continued to build my brand. He did a great job raising me as a man,” Rodney III said.
The bond is strong and athletics has been crucial.
“I played baseball from 4 to 10 years old and I played competitive baseball with a lot of my friends on a travel team that was called the Mud Dogs. We had a bunch of fun … And we were pretty good, also,” Rodney III said, admitting “I miss baseball a lot.”
He naturally gravitated to basketball, his cousin, after all, being former WVU great Georgeann Wells, the first woman to dunk in a collegiate basketball game.
At Laurel Highlands High School he was all-state, finishing his career with 2,035 points and as a senior averaging 22.0 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists a game.
“I played a high-level AAU basketball against a lot of guys who are either in the NBA now or playing at a high level of college basketball now or declaring for the draft this year,” he said, including LeBron James’ son, Bronny James. “That helped me with my competitiveness and my mindset and it translated to the football field and reminded me how I should come out and play every single day.”
But in the end, he settled on football. At Laurel Highlands he was an All-State player and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette WPIAL Male Athlete of the Year, playing quarterback but also some defensive back and wide receiver.
He finished his high school career with 3,014 passing yards on 225 of 395 passing for a 57% completion rate with 29 touchdowns while also rushing for 2,376 yards on 418 carries and 40 touchdowns while catching 56 career passes for 890 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The recruiting war for him was hard fought with Penn State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Oregon, Texas and Oklahoma State all offering but he never broke from an early commitment to WVU.
The first year was a learning period as he moved from quarterback to full-time receiver with coach Neal Brown devising ways to get the football into his hands either on passes or designed runs, Gallagher playing in all 13 games, catching 10 passes for 74 yards and rushing 15 times for 87 yards.
This year he’s pushing for a starting spot at wide receiver while Brown, always trying ways to get him onto the field, announced recently that the coaching staff intends to use him also on defense as a nickel back.
“I love it. I honestly think that it is going to expand my brand,” he said. “Scouts are going to like it, also. I’m excited and am looking forward to making an impact on both sides of the ball.”
There is another change, too, as Gallagher is giving up his No. 2 jersey, which also was worn by star safety Aubrey Burks, and switching to No. 24.
“Twenty-four is a family number,” he explained. “My mother and my dad also wore it. I wanted to stay within the family. And that was the number I got to pick.”
Always, with the Gallaghers, it’s family first.