FREMONT – After persevering through injuries and slogging through countless hours of practices only one thing stood between Devyn Jagodzinski and Sean Thurston from signing their letters of intent to continue their football careers at Adrian College.
“What’s today’s date?” Jagodzinski asked.
“I was about to say the same thing,” Thurston answered.
Ross senior Devyn Jagodzinski signed Wednesday to play football at Adrian College.
Devyn Jagodzinski
But like all the other obstacles that came before them, the Ross seniors quickly solved the problem and signed on to continue their education and athletic careers at Division III Adrian.
In his senior season, Jagodzinski was one of the Little Giants’ top weapons in the passing game. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound wide receiver caught 341 passes for 445 yards with four touchdowns. He was a team captain in 2017 having missed most of his junior year after injuring his shoulder as a sophomore.
“It pushed me to work harder at receiver,” Jagodzinski said of the injury. “Before I got hurt, I was more of quarterback but after everything I couldn’t really throw the ball like I could before, so I knew I’d have to do something different to get back on the field. With my shoulder being weaker than normal, I knew defense wouldn’t be the route for me so I took up receiver and put in the work.”
Jagodzinki, who plans on studying interior design, drew interest from Trine and Tiffin universities but said his comfort level at Adrian made it the right choice.
“As soon as I stepped on campus I loved everything. The facilities, the coaches. Everything,” he said. “I went up for a game, their Week 1 home-opener against Ohio Northern, it was under the lights and I just loved the atmosphere and loved being there. The coaches kept it real and I felt like it was the best place for me as a person and a football player.”
Ross senior Sean Thurston signed Wednesday to play football at Adrian College.
Thurston, a 6-0, 190-pound tight end gave the Little Giants a reliable presence up front while also grabbing 20 catches for 200 yards in his career.
His recruitment to Adrian happened quickly, and almost on a spur of the moment. Visiting the college with teammate Chrystjan Mancini, the Adrian coaches met Thurston and he quickly put himself on their radar.
“It’s kind of insane,” Thurston said.
“The head coach was more interested in him and they hadn’t heard of me yet,” he explained. “Then when I got there, they were asking me questions. Then, I’m guessing they looked at my film, because when we went to the locker room, they had my jersey number sitting out and stuff like that. It was pretty sweet.”
Thurston, who plans to study physical therapy or business, said he hopes to be given an opportunity to play early but knows he’s going to have to be flexible about where that will be.
Sean Thurston
“I’m hoping I’ll be playing but as of right now, I’m thinking it’s going to be more of special teams and sitting and watching,” Thurston said. “I played tight end, obviously, I don’t know if I’m going to play tight end because I’m not as big as a lot of tight ends, so I’m thinking maybe slot receiver is where I’ll end up. Or defense. I just want to play.”
Ross head coach Chad Long said Jagodzinkis and Thurston are examples for their younger teammates that doing things the right way in the classroom will lead to opportunities to continue to play at the next level.
“These guys all deserve everything they get moving forward and playing in college,” Long said. “They don’t have to hang their shoes up. These guys are the lucky ones that get to continue the game they love.”