Everything Nathan Rourke could control on his path to play big-team college football, he controlled this season.
Coming by way of Oakville, Ontario, Canada and transferring to Edgewood Academy before his final prep season this summer, the quarterback led the Wildcats to its sixth straight AISA state championship in 2015 while throwing for an Alabama high school record-tying 59 touchdowns during the undefeated campaign.
Even with the impressive highlight reel, only one season for most NCAA Power 5 conference coaches to see him wasn’t enough to receive official offers.
Rourke signed with Fort Scott Community College (Kansas) Sunday, in hopes to convince those schools’ to offer him next year.
“If I had ended up going D-I at this point, I would’ve been just a number and I was going to be brought in with less of a name,” Rourke said Monday. “But Fort Scott’s coach drove 13 hours to come see me, and that’s what really started us on going that way. The whole coaching and the whole community wanted me there, my family there and were inviting.
“We’re really excited about that fact that we’re going to a program that’s going to help me be a better player.”
Rourke ended his senior year at Edgewood with 3,768 passing yards, competing 75 percent of his attempts (182-for-244) with only three interceptions while adding seven rushing touchdowns.
The signal caller chose Fort Scott over Hutchinson (Kansas), Itawamba (Mississippi), Nassau (New York) and Scottsdale (Arizona). Rourke credited the program’s recent success and the conference it competes in, while giving the 6-foot-2, 205-pound prospect a chance to earn the starting job this fall.
“Where I want to go, the track record is going through this route to Division 1 and this is a step that’s going to get me there. It’s a little bit off the path, but it’s a step,” he said. “(Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference) is a great conference, in terms of jucos, they had a bunch of people drafted this year. It’s just a great program.”
With the control back in his hands on the path to big-time college football, Rourke said he’s ready to compete on the next level with Fort Scott.
“It sunk in this morning. It’s just different because you set your mind on something and it’s not there,” he said. “I realize that Fort Scott is going to help me to get to where I want to be, and I just have to wrap my head around that. It’s been good and I think it’s going to be a great fit.”
