NORTH ROBINSON — Brock Ritzhaupt has been a three-sport athlete at Colonel Crawford throughout high school — football, basketball, and baseball.
But football is his first love and Ritzhaupt will be able to continue his gridiron career at the next level after signing his letter of intent to play next fall at Heidelberg.
“I’ve been thinking about it since our last game,” Ritzhaupt said. “I’ve been missing football and I’m glad I get to keep doing it, doing what I love and what I’ve always wanted to do. I wanted to play college football.”
As quarterback, Ritzhaupt helped lead the Eagles to a Northern 10 Athletic Conference title and an appearance in the regional semifinal in the Division III state playoffs last fall. His coach, Ryan Teglovic, thinks Ritzhaupt will also succeed at the next level.
“I think he will do extremely well,” Teglovic said. “He has an unbelievable skill set. Sometimes in our offense, we don’t feature that probably as much as we could.
“Going to Heidelberg, being more of a spread offense, I think he’ll shine, I think he’ll blossom,” Teglovic continued. “He’s got an unbelievable arm and he has really good feet. We didn’t run him a whole lot because we wanted to protect him more.”
Heidelberg, a Division III college, plays in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the league is currently playing a spring schedule under head coach Scott Donaldson.
Proximity to home was one thing that appealed to Ritzhaupt about Heidelberg, which is in Tiffin, but that was not the only factor.
“I had a few (other offers), but Heidelberg definitely drew me,” Ritzhaupt said. “I’ve never heard a bad thing about Heidelberg. I love their campus. I love their coaching staff. I’ve had players reach out to me and tell me they’re glad I’m coming, which I never met before, which is awesome. I’m definitely going to feel right at home.”
Ritzhaupt plans to major in business finance.
“The other thing he has is he’s extremely smart,” Teglovic said. “We’re talking a kid whose ACT score is crazy good, his GPA is crazy good, he takes college classes. He’s got everything you’d be looking for in a college quarterback.”
Ritzhaupt is keeping his career in perspective and will not be overanxious to get playing time.
“Right now, they have a freshman quarterback that is really good,” Ritzhaupt said of the Student Princes. “I think he could go somewhere else. He’s doing really good. I’m going in thinking play my best game, whatever happens. If I don’t play a snap until my senior year, it’s whatever.”
Putting on the pads at college will suffice in the meantime.