As childhood dramas go, losing football was a very big deal to Charlie Batch.

"It was taken from me in sixth grade; I kind of messed around, failed a class I shouldn't have failed and had to go to summer school," he said, shaking his head.

His mother, Lynn Settles, remembered his reluctance to show her the report card: "He was so scared to come home."

Adding financial insult to academic injury, Ms. Settles discovered the Steel Valley School District required she hire a tutor for Charlie. Working two jobs as a single mom, she ponied up a $125 fee, only to be told there was little the tutor could do for her son because he knew the subject matter, he just hadn't done the work.

"Charlie just goofed off," she said.

"He learned a very hard lesson because he couldn't play football or basketball [until he passed the course]. I had him suffer the entire summer, I did."

Her Charlie, known to Pittsburgh Steelers fans as No. 16, second on the quarterback depth chart to Ben Roethisberger, doesn't goof off anymore.

In fact, his daily schedule is fairly exhausting, happily so.

The Homestead native's Best of the Batch Foundation has been a model for local athletes giving back to community. From its red-brick headquarters on a residential street in Munhall, four full-time employees help field requests for the foundation's help with local programs, and Mr. Batch often comes straight to his office from the Steelers' practice facility down the road in the South Side.

"It's not a 9-to-5 job, typically," he said. "January and February are really busy, we do a lot of scheduling then."

In addition to his day job with the Steelers and various charitable and public speaking events he attends in the team's name, Mr. Batch has been heavily involved in the community where he grew up, working with Eyeglass World to provide free vision screening and eyewear to children in the Steel Valley School District one week, setting up a computer lab for public use another week.

Recently at a basketball banquet, he met a female basketball player who was undecided and down about accepting a college scholarship, so he put her in touch with WNBA Seattle Storm star Swin Cash.

Mr. Batch will be doing commencement speeches at Steel Valley and Wilkinsburg high schools this year, and possibly at one local college.

His CHUCK (Continuously Helping Uplift Community Kids) summer basketball program gives Mon Valley youngsters ages 7-18 a reassuring place to play five nights a week each summer, but it isn't just a cadre of 80 volunteers running things; Ms. Settles is there helping run things every night and her son is constantly there, too.

After Antwaan Randle El left the Steelers, Mr. Batch took over hosting the non-profit Pittsburgh Mercy Foundation celebrity golf outing; this year's event is June 6 at Sewickley Heights Golf Club.

That's just for starters. Tasha Wilson, Best of the Batch Foundation executive director, said the group's information line received more than 2,300 e-mails in the past 12 months, some of which are requests for speaking engagements or donations.

"Tasha told me we got five calls [Monday]," he said.

"There are times when you have to tell people 'no,' and you can't do everything," he said. "And you feel bad because there is just not enough time in a day, or in the course of a season."

Mr. Batch is someone who appears to consider himself fortunate for the chance to make connections for others.

"He was always a leader, never a follower," Ms. Settles said.

One of his favorite quotes, which he said, is from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

It wasn't necessarily an easy path, he said. It's easy now to see a gifted athlete making good money and looking ahead to substantial development projects, such as turning a former bakery and storage building in Homestead into residential lofts and retail development.

But "when I go out and tell my stories, it isn't story-book," he said. "I let them know that what you see is not what you get. After 10 years in pro football, standing here in front of you, I want you to know it doesn't happen overnight.

"There is no right way, you have to create it on your own, because the way I did it wasn't typical."

Mr. Batch, 33, was a star athlete at Steel Valley who led the Ironmen to the WPIAL football title in 1991, and the basketball playoffs as well.

He starred at Eastern Michigan University, after a slow start fraught with injury and frustration. In 1995, a change in coaches changed his life.

"I met the [new EMU] coach for the first time and he says 'You're my quarterback, you're my guy.'

"And that was my opportunity."

Drafted by Detroit in 1998, he returned to Pittsburgh with the Steelers four seasons later.

"Not that many people are in the situation I'm in, being this close to home and playing professional football," said Mr. Batch, who shares a house in Wexford with two well-trained Bichon Frise dogs but often crashes at his mother's house in Homestead.

He shrugs off the suggestion that being a role model adds pressure to someone whose job demands a keen sense of dealing with stress.

Assault charges against Steelers linebacker James Harrison were recently dropped, but former Pittsburgh wide receiver Cedric Wilson is facing his own assault charge. Both involved alleged domestic violence.

"It's not really a concern but when you look at it, obviously, the things that happen on your team are a direct reflection on everybody; you're guilty by association.

"It's happening, it's all over the news, so I have to be aware of what's going on. I can only worry about myself. This is our job. There are only 53 positions available and I want to be one of them. I'm not going to let any distractions dictate what's going on with my job."

So much about the foundation's work is about building trust with young people. The seven-year old CHUCK league is about more than games at the Homestead playground on 16th Avenue. Bad behavior is just not tolerated, and everyone, from the little tykes to the big-name high school players, are expected to show some respect.

Mr. Batch noted that the only time they've had to break up a fight at the CHUCK league, it was a matter involving two young teen girls arguing over a guy.

"I said 'Don't bring that into the playground. I know who you are, who your parents are,'" Ms. Settles said.

Best of the Batch is working toward more education-based opportunities, such as the computer lab project. It's nice to give kids school supplies and backpacks, but even better to go beyond one-shot deals.

"One of the things I try not to do in children's lives is create false promises. If I set out to do something, I try to do it on a consecutive basis, year after year.

"So many things in their lives are just taken away," Mr. Batch said.

Sure, it's a lot of work, he said, but he isn't doing it alone.

"I have a lot of family and friends to help me out. I don't do this by myself. They do a lot of the legwork and behind-the-scenes work that ultimately, I get the rewards and recognition for."

He's a realist about playing football -- "I'm not going to play another 10 years" -- but then, he's had a lot besides football on his plate.

"I think the good part is, I have a lot of options."