Mount Gilead graduate Owen High (second from left) will compete in both football and track and field while at Ashland University.
Courtesy Photo
While at Ashland University, Mount Gilead graduate Owen High plans to keep very busy.
High, who will major in exercise science, plans to compete on both the football team and track and field squad. While he said that collegiate football was always part of his plans, his time on MG’s track team convinced him to continue in that sport.
“I guess the plan I always had was for football, but I grew to love track a lot, so I just figured I wanted to try it out in college and the opportunity presented itself, so I’m just grateful that I can be able to do two of them,” he said.
He added that he can see himself contributing in a number of positions on the football field and in a number of events for the track team.
“I’m going to try receiver for football, return man whether that be for kickoff or punt returns and defensive back, also, probably,” he said. “For track, I’ll do high jump and try to do sprints, some relays — four-by-one — short sprints and stuff like that.”
With football being his first love, Ashland immediately proved to be an attractive destination.
“They have a really good football program, first off,” he said. “It’s pretty close, so I can come home on the weekends when I really want — it’s not that far. I just like the atmosphere; it’s a really nice place.”
However, it still wasn’t a quick process for him to pick that university.
“It took a while,” he said. “I visited a few schools before Ashland, but after that last visit to Ashland, I think I pretty much knew this was where I wanted to be. After that, it was pretty easy.”
High figures that moving from small town high school football to the NCAA Division II collegiate level that Ashland competes in will be a major adjustment, but feels that the program veterans will help him get used to the new level of play.
“It’ll be a big change and big step up,” he said. “I’ll just have to put my head down and really grind. Really look for those veterans and people who’ve been there for a while and help them lead the path and get at it.”
Now that he’s moving on from Mount Gilead to Ashland, High noted that he’ll miss a lot of things which he feels provided a good foundation to get him to where he is now.
“I”m definitely going to miss my classmates, my friends and my old teammates,” he said. “Just the atmosphere. Definitely football Friday nights — I’m going to miss that. Everybody that helped build me up to get to where I am now.”
Now, though, he’s looking forward to college life and the challenges that it will provide.
“I’m just really excited about starting new at a new place and just being able to build up my persona and just exemplify who I am as a person to more areas and be able to just build new friendships and stuff,” he said.
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
