Massillon quintet ready to take next step

The start of a new future arrived for five Massillon Tiger football seniors on Wednesday morning. That’s when Robert Partridge, Jeff Myers, Bo Grunder, Joe Studer and Josh Remark put their signatures on binding National Letters of Intent to play college football this fall.

Partridge made official his commitment to Miami (Ohio) University, while Myers did the same to the University of Toledo. Grunder, Remark and Studer all finalized their places on the inaugural Notre Dame College football team, which will begin play in NCAA Division II this year.

And for each one of the five, they realized what Wednesday marked in terms of their progress through life.

“It’s means a lot,” said Partridge, who was decked out in a white shirt and red tie, along with the obligatory Miami RedHawks cap. “It’s another chapter in my life. It’s time to move on.”

Of course, getting to that moment often felt like a lengthy chapter of their lives as well. While some, like Myers, made their intentions known early – as in July – the other four all spent some time after the season mulling exactly which school was the best fit for them, not just football-wise, but also academically.

It was enough to leave many of their heads spinning.

“It’s such a relief,” Studer said. “It was a relief when I committed, because I was talking to so many coaches. I was getting four or five calls every night. You have to go on visits, you have to weigh out the positives and negatives of each school. You get it down to the last two schools, and once you pick, it’s just exciting.

“It wasn’t stress, but it was just overwhelming. Very overwhelming.”

But it is also almost dream-like in a sense for the players.

“It’s a big surprise, and it’s something that you dream about – playing college football,” said Myers, like Partridge wearing the cap of the school of his choice. “We were just talking the other day, me and Rob, that we’re going to be in an NCAA football game. It’s just something that’s just so unreal to think about how far we’ve came.”

Not that there weren’t bumps in the road on the way to Signing Day. Grunder, for one, believes he found that out firsthand.

The co-Division I Defensive Player of the Year in Ohio with Texas-bound Lakota West standout Jordan Hicks had received offers early in the process from Eastern Michigan and Air Force. However, Eastern Michigan pulled its offer late in the process, leaving Air Force as the only Division I-A program to offer a scholarship.

That left Grunder looking right up until the last few days at what school he felt was the one for him.

“It definitely caught me off-guard,” Grunder admitted. “It’s a business, recruiting is. There’s definitely a lot of ups and downs. You can get dropped whenever and someone will come talk to you out of nowhere. You just have to take advantage of your opportunities.”

But it is often said that when a door closes, a window opens. And that window for Grunder was a chance to join his two friends and teammates at Notre Dame College.

“They gave me a great scholarship offer – everything but my books,” Grunder said. “That’s all I have to pay for. They’re just starting the program from the ground up, so me and a couple of my buddies – Stu and Remark – we just want to go and be a part of a program where we can start something and make a tradition.”

Last year, Notre Dame played a junior varsity-only schedule, going 8-0 in the process. This fall, it will play its first varsity schedule, with six games against Division II teams and five others against NAIA teams.

But being able to get in on the ground floor of something like that just added to the interest for the three Notre Dame-bound Tigers. After all, it is a far cry from what they were used to in high school.

“Here at Massillon, we’re deep in tradition,” Remark said. “It’s real hard to leave a mark here because of all the players you have who have come before you and have already left their marks. It’s going to be fun to build a tradition there and build a team.

“That’s how they sold us. They told us that we’re deep in tradition here, but we can start a tradition there. We can be a part of something big and the start of something. We’re excited about that.”