The first college that recruited me was the Eastern Washington University

Eagles. They had  top of the line facilities and a great program to help

freshman deal with studies and football at the same time. EWU plays in NCAA

Division I  AA which has its advantages for media coverage etc. The campus was nice 

but I felt strange being in such a small town in Eastern Washington. I was invited to

 walk on with a sort of promise of a scholarship in my 2nd or 3rd year. I didn't realize how good an offer that was

at the time. They told my dad that I was selected by a recruiting service to be a person capable of playing

Division I Football. I wish the other colleges used that service so I wouldn't have had to sweat out

the last few weeks before making my final choice.

Occidental College called me next. I guess they called me three or four

times. I told them I was keeping my options open so they sent me some

information on their college. Occidental is a fine college but  a

Southern California  private school was out of the question at the time 

for me unless?? I hoped for something closer or bigger. Eastern was

higher on the list.

Whitworth was the next college to call out of the blue so to speak.

They had a wide receiver coach recruiting in the Seattle area. He was looking 

at game tapes of Lakewood near Marysville. He saw me in Lakewood's game

at Orcas on Lakewood's tapes and decided to call my coach Dennis Dahl. The Whitworth

coach called me and invited me and my parents to visit Whitworth. They even sent me airline

tickets. I'll have to admit that I really liked the Whitworth tour I had. A senior football player

took me around the campus and I met all the coaches, many players, heads of academic Departments

 and visited almost every building and dorm. The coach called me at least fifteen times over the next few months.

I would have been happy to go there.  They offered me around $10,000 a year toward my tuition which

made Whitworth's fees equal to state university's fees. It was really hard to tell them I was not going to go there.

    Western Washington University's recruiter contacted me late in the recruiting

time period. My dad talked to him at least twice. For some reason the

recruiters called and ask to talk to me when I was at school or at practice.

It's good to have your parents know how to talk to recruiters.

The WWU coach  made an appointment to come out and talk to OHS coach

Dennis Dahl, Geoff Roach and me at our high school which was impressive

 for it's a day's trip to our island school. Coach Dahl made an appointment for

me to go to take a tour of the WWU campus during the Blue/Silver Scrimmage.

 The head offensive line coach took my dad and me on a tour of the whole campus.

He was proud of WWU and it's football team. They made it to the playoffs

in their second year in Division II football. When they called to let me know that they wanted me to play football at WWU

and to report for practice on August 13th, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Western Washington [the region]

is where I wanted to go to school and now I could play football too. My decision was made at the very last minute but that's just the

way it worked out. Now my friends and relatives can easily come to see me play. My family attended every game I ever played in

and I plan to play in a lot more at WWU.  Western Washington University Vikings, I'm still a Viking. I plan to do my best

to show WWU that the Orcas Island Viking Football Program produces real football players.