\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA roar from the hometown crowd said it all when Eli Heidenreich took the draft stage on the North Shore, waving a Terrible Towel and realizing he was headed home.The Mt. Lebanon native, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft on Saturday, is already being celebrated not only for his athletic talent but also for the character he displayed long before reaching football\u2019s biggest stage.Mt. Lebanon High School head football coach Bruce Fronk, who was Heidenreich\u2019s position coach for the Blue Devils, said that Heidenreich always put the team first.\u201cThe thing that makes it very easy to cheer for Eli is that he\u2019s completely selfless,\u201d Fronk said.Fronk was with Heidenreich and his family shortly after the Steelers selected the Naval Academy running back, celebrating at the family home. Fronk said the Steelers are getting a player who focuses on the team, not himself. \u201cAny time someone made a play, whether it was on offense or defense, he was normally always going to be the first guy there to cheer him on and give him the credit,\u201d Fronk said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been about us.\u201dBack at Mt. Lebanon High School, the pride was unmistakable. Heidenreich\u2019s image flashed across the scoreboard, black and gold filled the hallways, and the school community embraced the moment.\u201cWe had black and gold day today,\u201d athletic director John Grogan said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s in black and gold, and again the community is fired up.\u201dGrogan said Heidenreich\u2019s journey \u2014 including his commitment to the Naval Academy \u2014 has made the school proud.\u201cThe commitment that he made to the Naval Academy and how he\u2019s represented Navy as well as Mt. Lebanon has just been phenomenal,\u201d Grogan said.Now, that journey has brought Heidenreich to the NFL and to the team he grew up supporting. For those who know him best, the moment feels fitting.\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most deserving people that I can imagine kind of having that movie-like moment at the draft,\u201d Fronk said.Even amid the celebration, Heidenreich\u2019s disciplined schedule continued. After celebrating with family Saturday night, he returned to the Naval Academy by noon Sunday and was back in class Monday.Soon, though, Mt. Lebanon expects to see one of its own back in the Pittsburgh area again \u2014 this time wearing Steelers colors for real.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMT. LEBANON, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A roar from the hometown crowd said it all when Eli Heidenreich took the draft stage on the North Shore, waving a Terrible Towel and realizing he was headed home.<\/p>\n
The Mt. Lebanon native, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft on Saturday, is already being celebrated not only for his athletic talent but also for the character he displayed long before reaching football\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Mt. Lebanon High School head football coach Bruce Fronk, who was Heidenreich\u2019s position coach for the Blue Devils, said that Heidenreich always put the team first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that makes it very easy to cheer for Eli is that he\u2019s completely selfless,\u201d Fronk said.<\/p>\n
Fronk was with Heidenreich and his family shortly after the Steelers selected the Naval Academy running back, celebrating at the family home. Fronk said the Steelers are getting a player who focuses on the team, not himself. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny time someone made a play, whether it was on offense or defense, he was normally always going to be the first guy there to cheer him on and give him the credit,\u201d Fronk said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back at Mt. Lebanon High School, the pride was unmistakable. Heidenreich\u2019s image flashed across the scoreboard, black and gold filled the hallways, and the school community embraced the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had black and gold day today,\u201d athletic director John Grogan said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s in black and gold, and again the community is fired up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grogan said Heidenreich\u2019s journey \u2014 including his commitment to the Naval Academy \u2014 has made the school proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commitment that he made to the Naval Academy and how he\u2019s represented Navy as well as Mt. Lebanon has just been phenomenal,\u201d Grogan said.<\/p>\n
Now, that journey has brought Heidenreich to the NFL and to the team he grew up supporting. For those who know him best, the moment feels fitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most deserving people that I can imagine kind of having that movie-like moment at the draft,\u201d Fronk said.<\/p>\n
Even amid the celebration, Heidenreich\u2019s disciplined schedule continued. After celebrating with family Saturday night, he returned to the Naval Academy by noon Sunday and was back in class Monday.<\/p>\n
Soon, though, Mt. Lebanon expects to see one of its own back in the Pittsburgh area again \u2014 this time wearing Steelers colors for real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A roar from the hometown crowd said it all when Eli Heidenreich took the draft stage on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[30866,29859,2990,30863,30867,30862,30865,93,26414,4182,30864,1488,29856,29858,30868,30869,6510],"class_list":{"0":"post-86662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-draft-stage","9":"tag-eli-heidenreich","10":"tag-family","11":"tag-fronk","12":"tag-grogan","13":"tag-heidenreich","14":"tag-journey","15":"tag-lebanon","16":"tag-moment","17":"tag-mt-lebanon","18":"tag-naval-academy","19":"tag-navy","20":"tag-nfl-draft","21":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","22":"tag-school-community","23":"tag-steelers-draft-pick","24":"tag-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116479615440409386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}