Waldinger commits to play football at Wheaton College
By Fred Kroner
Road trips became the norm for Jake Waldinger for more than a year as the Mahomet-Seymour tri-sport athlete looked for a college that he could call home as a football player for the next four years.
“I started the summer of my junior year taking visits about everywhere,” Waldinger said. “I went to schools in Iowa, Indiana, and all over Illinois. Me and my dad were gone about every weekend visiting schools trying to narrow down the list.
“Even though my recruiting trail started before my senior season, I didn’t exactly have the schools I wanted quite yet, so I kept working. The process of narrowing down the schools was a difficult one.”
It was too important of a decision to take lightly, so the visits kept occurring.
“Once I had visited 20-some schools, me and my parents (Dan and Kristine) had a couple meetings to narrow my list down to three or so,” Waldinger said.
The final decision was his, but he found a piece of advice from his parents helpful.
“They always told me when you know, you know so I stayed faithful to that and kept chugging through the process,” Waldinger said.
And then, he knew.
Waldinger committed to Wheaton College, a Division III program where he is expected to compete for time defensively in the secondary.
“To be brutally honest, what sold me to come to Wheaton was my second visit I took with my parents,” Waldinger said. “First off, the coaches were always adamant about being very welcoming.
“Then sitting down and having a conversation with head coach (Jesse) Scott just blew me away. Not only did the coaching staff blow me away, but the people I ran into and players I ate lunch with were all genuine and had very similar personality traits and interests as I did.
“Last, the Game Day atmosphere at McCulley Stadium is unmatched. You can feel the energy as soon as you walk in. I’m super-excited and grateful to become a Wheaton Thunder football player for the next four years. I cannot wait.”
For all the efforts the family put into travel to personally scout the prospective schools, it was a Mahomet neighbor that set the wheels in motion for Waldinger to get looked at by Wheaton.
“The recruiting process with Wheaton was truly a blessing,” Waldinger said. “It all started when a good friend of my dad (Matt Anderson) and a neighbor of mine, gave me the connection with a good buddy of his, former Wheaton All-American, Jon Calloway in about April of 2022.
“By using my connection, I reached out to Coach Mikey Swider (assistant coach who works with the defensive line and serves as special teams coordinator) and told him about my interest and how I knew of Jon Calloway. From there, the whole relationship blossomed. Coach Swider was really good about communication, calling me or texting me at least once a week.”
Waldinger wound up with seven offers by the time he finalized his choice.
“The Jon Calloway connection got my foot in the door at Wheaton,” he said.
Because he and his family were so thorough in their research, Waldinger didn’t see a need to wait and see if other offers might be extended later.
“I was never worried about making the wrong decision or committing too early,” he said. “Wheaton stood out for a while and it’s the place I feel God is calling me to be in order to grow athletically, academically, but most importantly spiritually.
“I visited many, many, many D3’s, multiple D2’s and one D1 throughout my process. My parents were very supportive, taking me to all these campuses and camps.”
Waldinger didn’t think his recruitment was hampered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 stuff was all blown over by the time I started doing visits and I’m very grateful for that,” he said. “I feel for my guys from last year who had a very unordinary process and honestly got robbed of better opportunities because of the pandemic.”
Waldinger was a stalwart defender on back-to-back 11-win Bulldog teams that advanced to the Class 5A quarterfinals.
His desire to continue playing football beyond high school was solidified during his junior season of 2021.
“Me, as well as my team, had a super successful year and something in my mind clicked to where I knew I wanted to play in college,” Waldinger said. “To take it into reality I had many good conversations with Coach (Jon) Adkins and my DB coach, Jason Murphy, asking them what to improve on.
“After taking the offseason watching film and training, I set goals for myself for my senior year.”
The 6-foot-3, 170-pounder was an Apollo All-Conference second-team selection in the secondary for the second consecutive year. As a senior, he tied for the M-S team-lead in interceptions (with Brennan Houser) with three and led the team by recovering three fumbles.
Adkins said Waldinger’s true value can’t be measured by statistics.
“He transformed himself into our lockdown corner that we would always put on the other teams’ best wide receiver,” Adkins said. “Going against (All-Stater) Quenton (Rogers) in practice every day made the games feel that much easier for him.
“Jake is a fantastic kid who has really worked hard over his time here within our program. I appreciate his leadership and dedication to Bulldog football and wish him the best in his next chapter of playing football.”
The manner in which he finished his prep career is drastically different from the way he debuted in the M-S youth program.
“I started playing football in third grade,” Waldinger recalled. “At first, I wasn’t the strongest or biggest kid, but I was always a great tackler.
“I fell in love with the game the minute I stepped on the field in third grade. Personally, I think having my dad as a coach really influenced that, but I also just have always felt a different type of adrenaline on the football field that’s hard to explain.”
For the Bulldogs, Waldinger is a three-sport letterman. He also plays basketball and baseball.
That mentality is a carryover from his early childhood years.
“When I was younger, I was the kid who played all the sports and dreamed of being in college for all of them,” Waldinger said. “It just depended on what season I was in.
“Football, I really started focusing on my junior year.”
In junior high, he had a successful stint in track and field. Waldinger also played soccer as a second- and third-grader.
For the Bulldogs’ current 4-5 basketball team, Waldinger shares the team-lead in three-pointers made (13) with Dayten Eisenmann. He had a high game of 17 points and also has had as many as five assists and five rebounds in a game.
During the baseball season of his junior year, Waldinger was an outfielder who batted .286 for a 27-6 team which lost in the sectional finals. He was third on the Bulldogs in runs scored (34) and tied for fourth in stolen bases (15).
While he has enjoyed staying active in the various sports, he believes better days are ahead in football when he devotes all of his attention to one sport.
“I feel being able to focus on one sport is going to really benefit me if I stay committed to my craft even during my offseason,” Waldinger said. “I’ve always been a three-sport athlete, so making the transition to one is going to be very beneficial.”
He is ready to contribute at Wheaton in any way possible and is willing to work his way up the ladder for playing time.
“I see myself being a very good contributor in the special teams game and getting limited reps on the defensive end (as a freshman),” Waldinger said. “The coaches haven’t told me exactly what I need to improve on, but I know in order to play at the next level I just need to adjust to the speed of the game and physicality of the game.
“No matter what though, I’m going to come into camp with a chip on my shoulder ready to compete and show the coaches what I’m capable of. Coach Adkins and staff I feel have prepared all of us very well for the next level. I feel like our defensive scheme was very similar to a college level scheme which will make that transition that much easier.”
Waldinger regards his strength as his ability to cover a receiver.
“What I need to work on the most is getting my head and hips flipped around a little bit quicker,” he added. “I believe I put myself in the best situation possible at Wheaton because my position coach is a former NFL cornerback (Pete Ittersagen).
“Learning from a guy like that will benefit me in so many ways and I’m super-pumped to have such an amazing opportunity.”
Of the numerous sports and activities he has pursued, Waldinger said his favorite was football.
“The adrenaline of strapping up the pads and going into a four-quarter war with your brothers is what is appealing to me the most,” he said. “You build lifelong friendships and relationships in the game of football unlike any other sport.”
When he enrolls at Wheaton, he will be relocating about 135 miles from his Mahomet residence. Having the early camaraderie of the football team will help ease the transition, he expects.
“I think moving upstate will be a slight adjustment for sure,” Waldinger said. “Just a different sort of lifestyle. But I’m super-excited, and feel it fits me and my personality well.
“I think having an immediate family with me in the football team is going to benefit me so much and I truly cannot wait.
“I’m super-close to my family and I’m really going to miss them next year. But I think I’ll be the perfect distance away to where they can come see me sometimes, but can’t just randomly show up any given day.”
Waldinger plans to major in secondary education, specifically Social Science and History with aspirations of becoming a teacher and coach.
“I see myself in 10 years as a varsity head coach somewhere and leading and teaching the next generation,” he said.
That would serve as a natural progression for an athlete who has emerged as a team-leader at Mahomet-Seymour, where he will be thought of fondly.
“We will miss Jake, but once a Bulldog always a Bulldog,” Adkins said. “Jake will certainly be remembered.”
