By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

Three Wynford seniors will be trading in their royal blue for the orange and black of the University of Findlay after signing their letters of intent Wednesday.

Zach Hendrickson, Cyle Skidmore, and Austin Shutler will attend the University of Findlay and play for the Division II Oilers football team. With other suitors like Ashland University and Notre Dame of Ohio, the trio chose Findlay for the culture of the football squad, as well as academic opportunities.

“The first time I visited it was for schooling, they had my major,” Shutler said. “Then I started playing football and they started looking at me for that.”

“Me and Kyle knew from the beginning that we were probably going to the same school together. Kind of a package deal, we visited all of the schools together, and we kind of just wanted to go to the same place,” Hendrickson said.

“I honestly didn’t know where they were going to go, so it was kind of cool when I found out that they were going to go Findlay too it was kind of surprising,” Shutler said. “It’s always good to go to college with some guys that you know.”

“I feel like all three of us are going to be close no matter what, because how close we were in high school, and it is just going to follow on to college which is good,” Skidmore said.

Wynford head coach Gabe Helbert introduced the players saying that it was a big day for the program.

“Wynford is just such a close knit community, a lot of times the kids want to do things together, and it seems we always have groups of kids that go to school together. To have three to go be able to play football together, and to go to a fine university such as Findlay, just awesome,” Helbert said. “They can kind of lean on each other through the experience, and anytime you have familiarity with people going in it’s going to help you.”

Shutler will major in physical therapy, Hendrickson in occupational therapy, and Skidmore is leaning towards physical therapy.

Also signing letters of intent for football scholarships Wednesday were Galion’s Cario Davison who is going to Western Michigan and Crestline’s Nate Coffman to Tiffin University.