Lakes has not had a Football player make it to the Division 1 level in almost five years. The last athlete was Ryan Selig, Class of 2018. Kids grow up dreaming of making it to the Division 1 level in a one certain sport. Selig was able to make that dream a reality in two different sports; Selig had multiple Division 1 Football offers and Division 1 Baseball offers.

Selig shares his feelings when he got his first D1 scholarship from Wright State University for Baseball the summer after his sophomore year of high school. “It was a shock. It felt good to know that I accomplished a goal of mine but I think I always knew I wanted to play football”. At this point in Selig’s life he accomplished the goal of going D1 in baseball at 16 years old but he always knew it was going to be football for him, even without having any D1 offers.

Selig started his Junior year of football still with no offers but got more baseball offers. Selig would wait until February of his Junior year to get his first football D1 scholarship from Western Michigan University. Selig made his dreams a reality. “When I got my first [D1 offer] it was a great feeling…to have accomplished a goal and made sure school was gonna be taken care of but as far as knowing that I was able to play at that level, I didn’t think I felt confident enough in those abilities until I actually got the chance to go on the field and do those things”. More football and baseball scholarships came to Selig after this. In April of 2017, Selig’s Junior year, he ended up committing to play football at Western Michigan University.

Selig gets to campus and he automatically sees the huge difference between college and high school football. “As far as practice, it was a big switch because in college football you have fall camp [where] we’re at the stadium basically all day during the month of August and I never had that in high school. As [for] the games, the biggest difference is just the size of the player. Everybody in college football was the best player at their high school. In the game everyone’s just bigger, faster, stronger. So that was probably the biggest change as far as games”.

Another big difference Selig notices is the college workload as a student, along with playing football, was a lot. Luckily for Selig the coaches “had me at study tables, so I had hours required to meet during the week. I actually had to go to a room just for student athletes and sit in there for a little over six hours a week. I had to swipe a card in and swipe when I left, and by the end of the week I had to have six hours. I think that was really good for me, my first year taught me how to manage my time and take advantage of every moment I had to do my school work yet still be able to do everything I needed to do on the field”.

Selig is now in his fifth season at WMU, he now gives a rundown on what home games have looked like at WMU over the past five years. “The night before the game we’ll go over to the stadium (Waldo), in the afternoon we’ll have meetings then we’ll have dinner. Once meetings and dinner is over, we go to a hotel and we’ll be there for the night. In the morning we’ll wake up around 9, go back to the [Waldo], have breakfast, hang out there and do a little walk through, do a stretch with the coaches, and then we’re actually free to go back to our homes. Then at 4:30 we have to come back on campus for a meal and then after the meal we do [The Bronco Walk] from a building on campus past the students and we get on a bus to go to the [Waldo]. Then once you’re there you get ready to play and there’s people there that will direct you where to go but it’s basically time to go out and play. After the game, it’s usually late and you hang out with family”.

Selig graduates in December of this year, but he still has another season left of eligibility. Since Selig redshirted his true freshman year, that gave him this season for eligibility. When COVID hit WMU only got a six game season, giving all the players an extra year of eligibility. Making Selig eligible for six years of D1 football.