Sports fans from Tustin will take a special interest in Sunday’s Super Bowl LI between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots.
Chris Chester, a 2001 Tustin High graduate, is listed as the starting right guard for the Falcons in Sunday’s game in Houston. The 6-foot-3, 303-pound Chester, 34 years old, is in his 11th NFL season.
Chester competed in football, basketball and track at Tustin High School and earned an athletic scholarship to Oklahoma, where he initially played tight end and was later moved to center, said Tustin athletic director Tom Giebe.
“He was a second-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens, where he played the first five years of his career, followed by four years with Washington. He’s in his second year playing for the Atlanta Falcons,” Giebe said.
Chester, who wears No. 65, is remembered for taking time out for his alma mater.
“Chris continues to give back to his high school community, donating money to the football, boys basketball and boys lacrosse programs and recently stopping by football practice during his bye week to address and motivate the team,” Giebe said.
Tustin football coach Myron Miller, who has followed Chester’s career after coaching him, said “it’s very exciting” to see Chester in the Super Bowl.
“He was a special kid; he played football and was All-Southern Section for me. He played tight end and wingback. He had a 90-yard run against Foothill,” Miller said. “He won the league (title) in track and discus.”
“He was a great blocker” as a tight end at Oklahoma, Miller said. “He wasn’t good enough to play as a receiver. His junior year, they made him a lineman and he started his senior year, he kept working on his own and by the time the (NFL) combine came around he was 315 pounds and got drafted in the second round by the Baltimore Ravens.”
Miller said he and Chester weren’t really thinking that the NFL would be an option one day. But the extra effort paid off.
“He just worked and worked and worked and became a really good football player,” Miller said.
Miller talked with Chester last weekend about the Super Bowl. He said Chester visited with the Tustin football program last November.
“Right now, it’s all business,” Miller said. “He was very excited about that game last week but he doesn’t show excitement; he is a kid who just does the best he can every single time. He’s been really successful because of it. He’s great in the locker room, he’s great on the field. He was great to coach and a great teammate. Every person I know respects and enjoys the friendship with Chris.”
Chester is the second Tustin player that Miller has coached who played in the Super Bowl. DeShaun Foster played for the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Patriots.
Sunday’s game “will be the only time that I root against Bill Belichick,” the New England coach, Miller said. “Belichick is a coach’s coach but he’s got four (titles), and I would like to see one of my guys get one.”
Tustin boys basketball coach Ringo Bossenmeyer remembers the impact Chester had at Tustin on the basketball court.
“The two words that come to mind when I think of Chris Chester are loyalty and commitment,” Bossenmeyer said. “My first year as head basketball coach at Tustin High School was 2000-2001, which was also Chris’ senior year.
“In his junior year, the basketball team had gone 2-21 and I was beyond impressed with the fact that Chris” – who had the scholarship to Oklahoma – “was still committed to playing basketball, even though we were going to be a very average team at best, and were in the very beginning stages of rebuilding the basketball program.
“He never wavered in his loyalty and commitment to his teammates and the program overall,” Bossenmeyer said.
Contact the writer: tiburt@scng.com
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