MUNCIE — Kyle Seger remembers his first days at Ball State, some four and a half years ago. He was a walk-on, but he had dreams of becoming a scholarship player.
“Right when I got here, I told my parents ‘I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I’m going to do my best to try and get my school paid for,'” Seger recalls. His parents didn’t really mind if he earned a scholarship or not — they told their football-obsessed son he had their support either way.
“They didn’t want me taking out loans and getting in all kinds of debt.”
Since that first day, redshirt senior Kyle Seger has played in 11 games as a walk-on defensive end. This fall, just a day before the Cardinals reported for camp, he talked to his father about how much his senior campaign would cost. Dad mentally divvied up his pension as he planned on helping his son, like he always had.
Last Friday, after the Cardinals’ second practice day of the fall, Seger was called down to the front of the Venderly Football Complex auditorium to play “The Cardinal is Right.” Three players before him had stood with their backs turned to a screen projecting words they had to guess based on clues from teammates in front of them. The first three words were simple. “Elephant,” “unicycle,” and “Olympics.”
The message for Seger, a native of Huntingburg, Ind., was a bit different.
“You have earned a full scholarship.”
Just about every player in the room erupted with cheers and rushed down to embrace their clearly surprised teammate. For a little more than four years worth of blood, sweat and tears, he said, Seger had waited for a scholarship. In seasons past he had walked into different coach’s offices to ask about his chances. They were up front, but the answer was always the same.
Not this year.
“This year, we all want it to be the ‘special one’ where we hopefully do good things on the field,” Seger said. “But getting this scholarship, it’s huge for me personally. … At the end of the day, it’s their decision, what they do with the 85 scholarships. I just made sure to do everything I could on my end to earn it.”
Friday, by the way, was his mom’s birthday. Seger said he gave her “one heck of a present” when he called to let them know that he’d finally earned his scholarship and dad’s pension money could stay in the bank. Not that it mattered to them, or Seger.
“I’ve always loved the game of football, so it honestly didn’t matter to me,” he said. “I’d pay money if I had to, to play football.”
Contact Ball State sports reporter Dakota Crawford at dcrawford@muncie.gannet.com and follow @DakotaCrawford_
