A pair of Rolla High School football standouts made it official on Wednesday...they’re now Central Missouri Mules.
RHS seniors Gavin Otte and Trevor McAllister, who helped power the Rolla Bulldogs to one of their best-ever seasons this past fall, signed national letters of intent to the University of Central Missouri yesterday.
The signing ceremony for both took place at the RHS library.
Wednesday was the first day high school recruits could sign letters of intent with NCAA programs.
Otte is a receiver-defensive back while McAllister will go to Warrensburg as an offensive tackle.
The two played huge roles in the Bulldogs’ 10-2 season in 2009, which included the school’s first-ever Ozark Conference championship and an impressive four-overtime setback in Missouri Class 5 Sectional action.
Otte Paves Own Path
Otte was considering a couple of other of Central Missouri’s Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) rivals in Truman State and Southwest Baptist University. However, Central Missouri has been on his radar screen for a couple of years now and he gave the Mules a verbal commitment Sunday night.
There was a personal incentive to go to Kirksville and attend Truman State. That is where Gavin’s father, Rich, had a record-setting career as an All-America receiver during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Truman was known as Northeast Missouri State.
Gavin said there was no pressure to follow his father to Kirksville, however. “Not really,” he said.
“My parents told me they would back me up wherever I decided to go. My dad just kind of sat back and laid everything out for me. He didn’t push me one way or the other.”
Gavin Otte made his final decision without making his official visit to Warrensburg. He’ll be making that trip this weekend. He’ll use the trip to introduce himself to many of the new Central Missouri coaches. Last month Jim Svoboda was hired as the Mules’ head coach, replacing Willie Fritz, who resigned to accept the Sam Houston State head coaching post.
“I still haven’t talked to the new coaches personally,” said Otte, who plans to major in athletic training and later get a Doctorate in physical therapy. “I’ll talk to them this weekend. (The coaching changes) really changed everything. I had to make my decision on the success the program has had this year and last year. Everybody I’ve talked to has said they’ve just loved it up there.
“It was a pretty tough decision, especially after I visited Truman. Before Truman I was pretty much set on Central. After Truman, it made the decision much tougher.”
Otte (5-10, 163) said he will get first crack on offense. As a senior last season Otte caught 16 passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns in Rolla’s run-dominated veer offensive attack. On defense he made 40 tackles, 22 assists and three interceptions.
“For right now they’re looking at me at receiver,” he said. “If they want me to play on defense, I’m fine with that.”
Regardless, Otte said he wants to red-shirt his first year in Warrensburg, to better prepare himself for the college game.
“I’m glad it worked out for him; he wanted to go (to Central Missouri) for two years,” said RHS head coach Josh Smith of Otte. “He had other options but he’s going to go there and work hard.
Everything he’s done he’s got it by working very hard.
“They’ve talked to him about offense and he’s tough enough to do that. But he’s also tough enough to play defense.”
Big McAllister Strides
A year ago McAllister was fighting for a starting spot for his high school team. Wednesday he was signed by a high-level Division II program.
“He has improved his body and continues to do so with his feet,” Smith said of McAllister. “The improvement he’s made since he was a freshman is incredible.”
Indeed, McAllister has come a long way, to the point he narrowed his collegiate list to a pair of MIAA teams Central Missouri and Lincoln University (Lincoln rejoins the MIAA in two years).
T-Mac, as he’s known to his Bulldog teammates, said he made his final decision on Saturday.
Unlike Otte, McAllister met Svoboda and many of his new Mule assistants when he took his visit to UCM last Saturday.
“I just liked the coaches and the players,” McAllister said of Central Missouri. “I liked the school itself, but I really liked the coaches.”
The turnaround for McAllister started last off-season.
“I remember my coaches telling me I could really be good if I prepared really hard,” McAllister said. “One day I decided I was going to be good. It probably happened during the off-season lifting in the summer. I was committed to wanting to get better.”
And that’s exactly what he did, improving his strength and footwork in becoming one of the top offensive tackles in the area.
McAllister is wrestling for RHS for the first time ever this winter. The result has been better balance and footwork, but a loss of body weight, which concerns him a little. At 6-3, McAllister played at around 315 pounds this past fall. He says he’s down to around 270 pounds as the Bulldog wrestlers’ 285-pounder. “But I’m glad I’ve wrestled,” he said. “It’s made me physical and a better athlete, I believe.”
Like Otte, McAllister says he wants to red-shirt, to continue his improvement.
“Most linemen red-shirt,” he said. “I want to have that year to get ready and then really get after it.
“I think I was more physical this year than technical. I am physical and they will work with me skill-wise. I just need to keep working.”
“He said he didn’t want to go someplace and play immediately,” Smith said of McAllister. “He wanted to go somewhere and work a couple of years before he played. I’d say they’ll keep him around 300 pounds. He’s probably about 280 now. He needs to put about 20 pounds of good weight on.”
