Prairie Ridge QB Tyler Vasey’s amazing season garners interest from colleges

CRYSTAL LAKE – Tyler Vasey started his senior year at Prairie Ridge thinking he would enjoy his last season of high school football and turn to baseball in college.

Then, something amazing – almost unfathomable – happened.

The Wolves’ blazing-fast quarterback just kept running away from, around and sometimes over defenders and posted incredible numbers.

Vasey passed 2,000 yards, then he raced by Samson Evans’ school record of 2,211, then he passed Johnsburg’s Alex Peete’s 2,529 for the most ever by an area runner.

Vasey then assaulted the IHSA top-20 list of rushers for a season, blowing by them in bunches. He now sits at No. 1 at 3,609 yards as the No. 2-seeded Wolves (11-1) host No. 4 St. Ignatius (10-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday in a Class 6A playoff semifinal at Prairie Ridge.

[ Game preview: Prairie Ridge, St. Ignatius face similar challenge in trying to defend the triple-option ]

By only taking his past five games, Vasey would be McHenry County’s rushing leader with 1,875 yards, almost 100 ahead of Richmond-Burton fullback Steven Siegel’s 1,780. College coaches are taking more notice – Vasey visited Northern Illinois last weekend – and more could come.

“The problem was I had two injuries in football,” Vasey said. “I didn’t get much exposure during the year. My junior year I missed the first six games, and my stats weren’t as good as what coaches were looking for. My sophomore year I broke my collarbone, and it was the COVID year.

“But I got a lot of exposure for baseball. I was leaning toward baseball at the start of the season. I missed a few days in summer [football] camp because I was playing baseball and traveling. I was getting the exposure that I kind of needed for baseball. Now I guess I’m receiving more attention for football.”

Vasey played two games of the COVID-19-shortened spring 2021 season before he suffered the broken collarbone. He returned to baseball in time to play with the Wolves’ Class 3A state runner-up team.

Last fall, Vasey was slated to start at quarterback but suffered a broken bone in his elbow area a week before the opener. He returned to play the last six games and gained 745 yards, averaging 14.3 yards per carry.

Vasey is 6-foot, 170 pounds, on the light side for NCAA Division I football, but when coaches see him leaving opponents with wind burn, they may not care.

“I think he always thought, ‘I’ll just be too small’ to play at the same level he can play baseball,” Wolves football coach Chris Schremp said. “But having this kind of a season, and he said, ‘I’m really having fun playing football.’ He wants to see what his offers are. If I had to guess, I’d say football.”

Vasey is not certain whether it will be football or baseball. Even playing both is a consideration at this point. He was a Northwest Herald All-Area first-team selection at shortstop, where he hit leadoff and batted .413 with 26 RBIs and 35 runs. He stole 30 of 33 bases and had a .480 on-base percentage.

Vasey has talked with NCAA Division II Lewis and D-III schools North Central, Rose-Hulman and Beloit for baseball.

“I love both sports. I’ve told some recruiters it’s unfair to say which one I want to choose right now because I’m in football season,” Vasey said. “When it’s football season, I want to play football. And when it’s baseball season, I want to play baseball.”

Football players can sign their national letters of intent with NCAA scholarship schools next month, but at this point, many of the senior players have committed, and scholarships are scarce.

Vasey might be left with an offer as a preferred walk-on, which he said would be fine as well.

“Most of [the scholarships] are gone, that’s the problem,” Vasey said. “It was too late getting this exposure. It’s great to have. I’d rather have it than not have it.”

It gives the quarterback who so adeptly runs Prairie Ridge’s triple-option offense another option.

“We’re hoping he’s on people’s radar now,” Schremp said. “Transfer portal things are happening. Scholarships are opening up. He’s starting to catch people’s eyes with the ridiculous numbers he’s putting up.”

Schremp enjoyed watching the videos of Vasey’s 481-yard, eight-touchdown effort in Saturday’s 69-28 win against Harlem.

“There’s some legit speed on Harlem, and him being able to run by those guys … ,” Schremp said. “There was one play, probably the 70-yard run, there’s four guys there and [Vasey] plants and jump-cuts back inside, and their No. 9 [linebacker Timmy Wessels] is standing there, and he puts his hands on his head as he’s watching him and starts shaking his head. You think you got him, and then you don’t.”

That will be the challenge for St. Ignatius’ defense, slowing down a fleet back who is averaging 310 yards a game in the playoffs.

“It’s assignment football, and you have to tackle, you can’t let him squirt out,” Wolfpack coach Matt Miller said. “Anytime you’re running the quarterback in any offense, it’s an advantage because most teams he’s catching the ball and handing it off, and then you’re short a guy – nine guys are trying to block 11. When the quarterback’s the runner, you have an extra gap, an extra runner, that’s always a challenge with anybody. You got to get him to the ground when you get hands on him.”