By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
OTTAWA -- A lot of high school athletes can't wait to spread their wings and leave their home state for their college careers.
Former Washburn Rural star Ty Weber (42), a freshman-to-be at Washburn University, will play for the East in Saturday night's Kansas Shrine Bowl at Hays. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Former Washburn Rural star linebacker Ty Weber opted to stay closer to home -- a lot closer -- signing with Craig Schurig's Washburn University program to play his college football.
"It's about 12 minutes,'' said Weber, who will play for the East in Saturday night's Kansas Shrine Bowl at Hays before reporting to the Ichabods.
Weber, the Shawnee County defensive player of the year as a junior and senior, said Washburn was always at the top of his list of prospective colleges.
"It's the community,'' Weber said. "It's an honor to be able to suit up in my hometown of Topeka and to stay and play in front of all the fans and all the people who have supported me along the way. It's really a great honor.''
Weber, 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, has taken advantage of the close proximity of Washburn to get a jump start on his preparations for the 2023 season.
"I've been in every moning working out and doing the 7 on 7s in the afternoon,'' Weber, who was the Centennial League defensive player of the year last fall. "It's really helped me to get acclimated in the program and meet some of the older guys. It's been a great experience so far.''
Weber, who was in on 118 tackles with 18 tackles for loss in 2022 for the Junior Blues, is agreeable to whatever plan the Washburn coaches have for him as a freshman, but said he is preparing himself to be ready to play this fall.
"As of right now, what they told me coming in, is they want me to play,'' he said. "We'll see in fall camp but my goal is to be playing and starting eventually throughout the season.''
Weber, who was also an All-Shawnee County baseball player at Rural, said the last few months have provided further proof to him that WU is the right place for him.
"Once I got the offer from Washburn, that was a big goal of mine to be able to play in Topeka and stay here,'' he said. "And once I had that I had a few options open, but I knew Washburn was the place to be.''
Weber, who was Washburn Rural's tackle leader as a sophomore, junior and senior, is one of four Shawnee County products on the East Shrine Bowl roster , joining Shawnee Heights' Gavin Zaperku, Rossville's Jacob Carver and Hayden's Ben Evans.
Zuperku and Carver are playing on the offensive line for the East while Evans is playing on the defensive line.
Kickoff for Saturday night's game is 7 p.m.
