It's not big-time football, but WIU should be a good fit for Tassio

For the most part college football programs can't afford to recruit with their hearts.

If that were the case, Naperville North's Jordan Tassio would have garnered Division I scholarship offers from throughout the country.

There's no doubt Tassio can play football with excellence and passion. The consensus all-stater proved as much by quarterbacking the Huskies to the Class 8A state championship in November.

Can Tassio match that effort at the highest college level? Not only while performing at a different position, but on the other side of the ball? Perhaps that's where doubt arose.

On Wednesday, with no Division I offers on the table, Tassio signed a National Letter of Intent to accept a partial scholarship to play football and baseball at Western Illinois University.

"It would have been great to play Division I football, but it's still great football at Western Illinois," he said. "I'm just looking forward to the opportunity."

While committing to a Division I-AA football program didn't meet Tassio's ultimate goal, the process left him satisfied for the most part.

Even if it didn't always make the most sense.

"It was an interesting process," said Chuck Tassio, Jordan's father and former head football coach at Willowbrook. "I guess the dad in me just expected more interest."

The coach in him had to be thinking the same thing.

What more did Tassio have to do?

His diverse athletic ability could have landed him anywhere on the football field for the Huskies. Tassio started at wide receiver as a sophomore, and he was a standout kicker and punter while serving as a two-year starting quarterback.

At 6-foot, 210 pounds Tassio certainly had the size to play defense as well. But with so much on his plate already, and with so much talent already on defense, the most defensive action he saw was during spot practice time.

With no defensive play on tape to send out, colleges were left to project his possibilities in the secondary. Much interest came after his junior year, leaving Tassio hopeful about his choices.

"After my junior year I was getting all those letters," he said. "And then they'd slowly start dropping off."

Which left him with Wednesday's decision. Western Illinois, playing a 3-5-3 defense, plans to use Tassio as a rover -- an outside linebacker-slash-safety.

Tassio has no doubt he can excel with the Leathernecks. In fact anyone who saw him play as a senior has no doubt.

It's just a shame he couldn't overcome the Division I doubters, some who hinted to Tassio he was next on the scholarship list if other recruits fell out of the picture.

"I understood what was happening," he said. "I'm just over any disappointment and now I'm looking forward."

Tassio sincerely sounds happy about his future. Part of the reason is because he'll be able to continue playing baseball at WIU, which does play at the Division I level.

So, in the end, he'll wind up playing college ball in the two sports he loves, including one at the highest level possible.

Unlike the colleges pursuing him, Tassio was able to follow his heart.

"It would have been tough to give up baseball, so I'm real excited about that," he said. "I think it all worked out for the best."