Last Wednesday, Thorndale High School seniors Stryker Leschber and Colton Merryman signed their letters of intent to continue their football careers following graduation.
In a gym filled with TISD students, athletic director and head football coach John Kovar praised the two signees and elaborated on their two different journeys to play college football.
Merryman, a kicker who moved to Thorndale during high school, didn’t have his sights set on playing collegiately until a week or so before two-a-days began this past fall. After seeing a fellow teammate have trouble kicking, he tried and immediately caught the attention of Bulldog coaches.
“My teammate was out there kicking and he missed badly,” Merryman said. “I was like, ‘well that looks terrible, let me see if I can make one’.”
“It was a 35-yarder and it was well over,” he said. “I kicked a few more and Coach (Austin) Caffey came out and was like dang.”
Merryman, who played soccer in the past, said that he focused primarily on kicking after that and eventually received interest from McMurry University in Abilene.
“I feel ecstatic,” Merryman said. “I don’t even know how to describe it, it’s been such a fast deal.”
Coach Kovar also talked with the McMurry coaching staff before an offer was made, illustrating how much raw talent the Thorndale senior had.
“It just shows how much he really appreciates me and respects me that he was willing to put his neck out for me,” Merryman said.
For Leschber, his pathway to the Ivy League couldn’t have been anymore different than Merryman’s road out to west Texas.
“I’m not much of a gambling man, but if you would’ve told me six or seven years ago that Stryker would be signing a division I scholarship, that would’ve been my bet,” Kovar said.
Leschber said he’d played football since his elementary days, but realized he was good coming into his freshman year, when he towered over most of his older teammates.
“I was the biggest kid on the team and that was my freshman year,” Leschber said. “I realized that I could go play football in college.”
After Leschber’s junior season, he got his first offer from Columbia University, an Ivy League school in New York City.
“It was in February and after that, schools like Baylor and UTSA were contacting me,” he said. “And that’s when it just started steamrolling ahead.”
Leschber said he was sold on the New York City school due to the chance to receive an education at an Ivy League school while playing football.
“An Ivy League education and I get to play the sport I love,” he said. “It seems like a win-win situation.”
The Thorndale senior also said the idea of living in New York City had some appeal as well.
“When I visited, it was amazing and the opportunities are endless,” he said.
Leschber and Merryman’s signings mean that seven current students at Thorndale High School are signed or have verbally committed to collegiate athletic programs.
The other five are softball players Emilee Baker, Reagyn Trahan, Kelsey Kovar, Raeghan Carlson and Natalie Garcia.
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