It's nearly 2:30 p.m., almost the end of another school day at Bloomington High School South. As the afternoon announcements are wrapping up, the approximately 1,800 students at the school are left with a message.\n"Remember to pride yourself and the Panthers," the woman giving the announcement says. \nThe high school certainly has something to take pride in this week.\nOne of Bloomington South's former students, Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman, is preparing to lead his team Sunday in Super Bowl XLI.\nGrossman was the quarterback for the Panthers for four seasons from 1995 to 1998. Mo Moriarity was the head coach at South while Grossman played there and was an IU assistant coach under Gerry DiNardo.\nMoriarity said he knew right away he was getting a special player. The first time he saw Grossman throw was before school one February morning during the future star's eighth-grade year.\n"The very first pass that left his hand was one of those ones where that ball whistled and you knew it was something special," said Moriarity, now the head coach at Carmel High School. "I remember just going around school that day and everyone I ran into I would say, 'Hey, this kid's something else. He has a great future.' It was exciting because you know when you have something like that, chances for success increase."\nBy the time the season began, Grossman was already a member of the varsity team.\n"I think he's the only freshman in the time I was there that ever got moved up to varsity immediately," said Shannon Roberts, a former assistant coach at South. "It was just pretty apparent right away that he would be successful. Although he didn't start until the fifth game of his freshman year, we knew it was just a matter of time."\nGrossman's chance came with the Panthers sitting at 2-2 during that first year. Moriarity opted to go with his freshman phenom under center, and the move paid off. In his first start, Grossman led South to a 28-7 win against crosstown rival Bloomington North.\nGrossman never looked back.
'The bigger the game, the \nbetter he played'\nOver the next four years, the Panthers put up a 42-4 record with Grossman as their quarterback. By the time his high-school career was complete, Grossman had thrown for 7,518 yards and 97 touchdowns. More than 3,000 of those yards and 44 of those touchdowns came in his senior year, the same year he was named USA Today's Indiana Player of the Year.\n"When you get somebody that has his talent, it's kind of a special time for you," Moriarity said. "There weren't many days in the four years that he played there that you didn't go home and tell somebody what Rex did that day."\nGrossman concluded his career at South with a 35-14 win against Homestead High School in the Class 5A State Finals. Grossman threw five touchdowns in the win.\nPlaying well in key situations is a trend that J.R. Holmes, Bloomington South's athletics director, said he remembers about Grossman.\n"He got up for the big games and was usually at his best," Holmes said. "He did all right in the other games, but it seemed the bigger the game, the better he played."\nAfter graduation, Grossman enjoyed a successful college career at Florida, where in three years as a starter he led the Gators to a 23-9 record. As a sophomore, he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch.\nIn 2003 the Bears drafted him in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Still a leader\nThose who knew Grossman when he was putting up big numbers in high school said they still see that kid they knew at South, even as he's preparing for what may be the biggest game of his life.\n"He's not a real vocal leader, but he just takes charge when he's on the field and the other players just seem to rally around that," Roberts said. "It's the way it was in high school. Even though he's had a lot of criticism this year, when you look at the other players on the team, they're like, 'He's our guy and we're behind him all the way.' That's the way it's always been with him. Even when he was a freshman and he started on the varsity, it was the same situation. The upperclassmen knew he was the guy, and it just went on from there."\nMoriarity said nothing Grossman has done in his career surprises him anymore -- and he is confident his former quarterback will do well in Sunday's Super Bowl.\n"I expect him to do what he's done the last few weeks," Moriarity said. "That's to play well and give his team a chance to win. That's what he's been like his whole career and I don't think anything's going to change in the Super Bowl"
