Waiting on Other Programs

Chad Sprayberry is still holding two written scholarship offers from service academies and is hoping his senior year was enough to help him pull some other programs into the picture with scholarships. He has already set up his first official visit to Western Illinois in January and has a number of schools keeping in steady contact with him.

Air Force and Army are still the only two programs that have extended written offers to Oak Forest, Ill., native Chad Sprayberry, but the 6-foot-3, 228-pound linebacker is also hearing from programs like Western Illinois, Illinois State, Purdue, Iowa State, Iowa and Michigan State. He is hoping that some of those schools see what he did his senior season and fill their linebacker spots with his services.

“Right now I’m sitting on my offers from Air Force and Army and have set up an official visit to Western Illinois on January 19th,” Sprayberry said. “I really feel like they and Illinois State are on the cusp of offering me and both have talked about me playing some other positions like fullback and tight end as well, so that is somewhat intriguing obviously. As for the commitment that I would have to make to the service academies, I feel like it would pay great dividends in my future, so I have no problem with that.”

“I’m also waiting on schools like Michigan State, Purdue, Iowa and Iowa State who have all told me they still have linebacker holes to fill,” Sprayberry explained. “I’m definitely interested in all of those programs and just have to see what happens here over the next month.”

Sprayberry did not know his season statistics, however he did have the best game of his career this year in Oak Forest’s second match-up with Richards High, notching 11 tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, a safety and an interception that he returned for a touchdown at a critical moment in the game. He finished his senior campaign with first-team All-Conference, All-Area and All-State honors.