Highland standouts Wiegman, Zobrist realize their college dreams on signing day
National Signing Day represented the culmination of more than 10 plus years of sacrifice, long days of practice, scrimmages, and long weeks of tournaments for Highland senior athletes Carter Wiegman and Trevor Zobrist.
Wiegman a senior outfielder on the Bulldogs baseball team signed Wednesday, Feb. 5, to continue his athletic and academic career at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey.
For Wiegman, who will major in business at LCC, playing with the Trailblazers and living on campus there made it the perfect way to start off his college career.
“I reached out to coach (Randy) Martz and viewed the campus and it was really good and it was really what I was looking for with the look of more like a four-year campus,” Wiegman said. “It’s really cool and I like the campus.”
The campus and Martz ultimately won Wiegman over from other area junior colleges such as Rend Lake College, Kaskaskia College, and Jefferson College.
“Lewis and Clark, it was mainly the camps and the coaching staff that (won me over),” Wiegman said. “Coach Martz and coach Ferguson, I really like them and they’re really good guys.”
Wiegman, who hit .295 as a junior and helped lead the Bulldogs to the IHSA Class 3A sectional semifinal round of the playoffs in 2019, is expected to vie for playing time as an outfielder and catcher next year at LCC.
Zobrist headed to SEMO for football
Zobrist felt a sense of pride and relief as he signed his letter of intent to play football next fall at Southeast Missouri State University.
Zobrist, an offensive lineman who completed his senior season in 2019, helped lead Highland from a 1-3 start, to a 7-4 campaign and an IHSA Class 4A quarterfinal playoff appearance.
“It’s definitely a hard process, but all the coaches made it easy on me, so it was kind of seeing where I fit and then I just made my decision,” Zobrist said.
Zobrist announced his decision via twitter to attend SEMO on Saturday, Feb. 1.
He said he got plenty of interest from several Division-III schools and D-II programs such as McKendree University and Lindenwood University.
SEMO came into the picture late and it became the destination school for Zobrist fairly quickly. The program’s recent success in the FCS division last fall and the school’s prominent cybersecurity major made it a strong attraction for him.
“SEMO came up and I just think they’re a dream school with their cybersecurity program and their football program was OVC (Ohio Valley Conference) champions last year and I feel I could be part of that and help them out,” Zobrist said.
Zobrist, a three-year starter on the offensive and defensive line for Highland, was a three-time first-team Mississippi Valley Conference selection at HHS.
He is expected to learn the ins and outs of playing offensive guard as a freshman at SEMO and bulk up in the weight room.
“I know where I’m at size-wise right now, I just going to need to build muscle and get into the program and learn their plays and everything,” Zobrist said. “The first thing I talked to coach about was his view on size and he said to me If you can play football you can play football, so that’s where I’m going to be at.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 2:42 PM.