University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Trust, family feel helped Raheem Watts embrace Southern Miss
1/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss men's basketball forward Raheem Watts holds many values near and dear to his heart.
He is very close with his family and describes trust as the biggest aspect of who he is. The senior from Greenville, S.C., is in his second year as a Golden Eagle after two previous junior college stints in Jacksonville, Texas, and Dodge City, Kan. The journey to Hattiesburg was not easy, but an accurate portrayal of his perseverance.
"I was unable to see my family all year long, including Christmas," Watts said of his stay at Dodge City CC. "The coach put me in an apartment for Christmas break and it snowed hard. I was pretty much stuck for two weeks until everyone got back and the snow died down. I started to break down mentally because I had never been away from my family that long and I had two baby sisters who loved being around me. It was tough being away from the family and not being able to do anything about it."
Watts was able to get his mind off the adversity at times in that stretch by getting rides to the gym, only when it was moderately safe.
Now, as he closes his second year as a starter for the Golden Eagle men's basketball team, the lean 6-foot-7 Watts looks back and reflects on how strong he has become, both mentally and physically.
"I've been in so many different situations since I got to juco and I'm not even finished here," he said. "I still have a little more basketball to play. There's no telling what's ahead of us. Learning how to handle the situation and grow from it will help me later on in life. Being in three different spots for four years of college will help me deal with that type of stuff."
It has been known for a long time that the mental side of sports is of equal, if not more, importance than the physical side. Watts' strong willpower in his college years also resemble how he came to emerge as a teenager.
"I started playing basketball late," he said. "A lot of guys I met at the Division I level started at 3 or 4. I started my freshman year of high school. I was late getting into it and before then was all football. I wanted to make the NFL, but fell in love with basketball."
While the sight of a 6-foot-7 high school football player would be an exciting thing to imagine, it was not always true for Watts, who played quarterback and wide receiver.
"I was never the tallest through elementary and middle school, but I always had long legs and arms and everyone said I would be tall," he said. "My dad was 6-foot-4. I had the idea I would grow eventually. I was about 5-foot-6 in eighth grade and then got 6-foot-2. My junior year before prep school I was 6-foot-4 and grew after that."
The summer after his junior year at Greenville Senior High School, Watts met with coaches from Crossroads Charter High School in Charlotte. He then spent a postgrad year playing for Evelyn Mack Academy in town, but due to accreditation issues was resigned to starting his career in the junior college ranks. It was toward the end of his sophomore year at Dodge City where then-Southern Miss assistant Jeremy Cox attended all three of Watts' conference tournament games.
"That's where he fell in love with me and saw what I could do on the floor," Watts said. "When I got down here, the guys were all real nice and trustworthy. Trust is big with me, and where I come from I don't trust easily."
Fellow senior Quinton Campbell has lived with Watts both years the two have been Golden Eagles, each transferring from junior colleges. Campbell hails from Wilmer, Ala., outside of Mobile and was empathetic towards Watts' situation, including seeing his homesickness.
"With me it's different because I'm an hour and a half from home," Campbell said. "I got my mom to help him a little bit and get him out of his shell. My mom would kind of do it for all of our roommates being far from home. She made him feel like one of her own. This year he's definitely more out of his shell."
Watts has surely come full circle in that aspect, especially considering his past travels.
"Since high school I've been put in a position to get to know a lot of people from different places around the country and even Australia and Sudan," he said. "These guys [at Southern Miss] are all a good group, they are all here because they worked to get here. I have a lot of people who wished they could have my spot at this level. These guys want to win and are willing to work hard.
"You'll never be perfect, and we know that, but as long as we come in and work as hard as we can everyday, and you have hiccups on every team, but that's something you'll have to deal with in life."
It does not stop there. While Watts says he would love to continue playing basketball after school, he will have plenty of opportunities to pay it forward.
"If playing doesn't work out, I have a few things back home that I'm looking in to to coach high school and skill development with AAU teams," he said. "The high school I went to, I'm real close with the coaches and principal. I work with them in the summer and if nothing works out, I know I can be an impact there."
Watts may be one of Conference USA's most prolific slam dunkers, but that metaphor is far from an accurate description of his past trials and tribulations. Those have certainly paid off in his growth.
