Catholic Central’s Rohrwasser drafted by New England

Justin Rohrwasser, one of the top collegiate kickers and a graduate of Catholic Central High School, was selected in the fifth round by the New England Patriots in this weekend’s NFL Draft.

Rohrwasser grew up in Clifton Park, went to Shenendehowa High School before transferring to Catholic Central. His senior year, he played quarterback and kicker on the Holy Trinity football team, which at the time was made up of players from Saratoga Central Catholic, Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons and Catholic Central.

“I think (the Patriots are) getting a hard worker and somebody who is going to chase after the best version of themself and a good teammate,” Rohrwasser said during a conference call with reporters. “I want to do my best in order to help the team win.”

Holy Trinity head coach John Barber said Rohrwasser has the makeup to succeed. 

“When he was with us, he was a great kid,” Barber said. “He was the leader of the Catholic Central group and the kids hovered around him. He was very coachable; yes sir, no sir. He’s a great kid personality-wise.

Rohrwasser started his collegiate career at Rhode Island, before transferring to Marshall. In his senior season of 2019, he made 18-of-21 field goals with a long of 53 yards.

The Patriots needed to draft a kicker after releasing Stephen Gostkowski, the team’s all-time leading scorer, on March 23. Gostkowski, one of the most consistent kickers in the league, held the job for 14 seasons after taking over for the legendary Adam Vinatieri.

“There's a fantastic lineage of special teams in New England going back decades. Going into it, I'm just treating it the same as any position I'd be walking into,” Rohrwasser said. “I'm going to put all my heart into it, I'm going to work my butt off, I'm going to train hard and just put my head down and go to work. I'm going to try to do the best I can and be the best version of myself. 

“When you're growing up and watching some of the greats kicks – when I was in high school and just learning how to kick – you look at all these guys and you try to take stuff from all the great kickers throughout history,” Rohrwasser added. “You try to learn from their film and those are two guys I always watched and was always big fans of them. They're fantastic and great pros, absolutely.”  

So Rohrwasser, at 6-3, 220 pounds, has some big kicking shoes to fill, but the job is his to lose as he is the only kicker currently on the Patriots’ roster. He will also get to learn under head coach Bill Belichick, who has won six Super Bowls with New England.

“We’ve got like 250 kicks of him going back to URI and Marshall, so we’ve seen it all,” Belichick said after the selection. “He’s got a good leg, hits the ball straight, gets good hang time on the kickoffs. … I think there is a lot to like about him.”

Barber agreed.

“I think he will be very successful,” the Holy Trinity coach said. “He’s got a strong leg. He was very accurate in high school and college.

“Not much bothered him playing-wise. He made some clutch kicks for us and in college."

Barber added that even though Holy Trinity missed the playoffs by one game in 2014, Rohrwasser and the seniors set the template that has led to so much success for the Pride.

The selection of Rohrwasser, however, raised some eyebrows on social media because of a tattoo he has on his left arm of a flag associated with a group known as ‘The Three Percenters,” a right-wing militia and guns advocacy group. The Southern Poverty Law and the Anti-Defamation League lists the organization as an “anti-government” white supremacist hate group. Rohrwasser said he didn’t realize the association and will cover it up.

"I got that tattoo when I was a teenager and I have a lot of family in the military,” Rohrwasser said. “I thought it stood for a military support symbol at the time. Obviously, it's evolved into something that I do not want to represent. When I look back on it, I should have done way more research before I put any mark or symbol like that on my body, and it's not something I ever want to represent. It will be covered.”

Rohrwasser went a step further in an interview with WBZ-TV in Boston on Monday, saying we will have the tattoo removed. 

"As soon as I saw what it was linked to on Saturday, it was exactly that time I knew I had to get it totally taken off my body," he told the TV station. "I said cover it up (to reporters), but I want to get it removed from my body. It's shameful that I had it on there ignorantly."