Going pro is the dream of many high school athletes, and playing at the collegiate level is just one step in the right direction.

“Pretty much my whole life, I wanted to go play college football,” senior Derek Hubbard said, who is committed to playing as a running back at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

For some, competing in college has been a more recent thought.

“I’ve been powerlifting for two years, so it’s been kind of a reality about that long. But, I’ve really gotten into wanting to go to college for powerlifting on the collegiate level for about a year now,” senior Rylan Syring said, who is committed to powerlift at Ottawa University.

Powerlifting is not a sport DHS offers, but a club within the school coached by Madi Jenkins and Mitchell Welch.

“We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays. We get together to lift, coach Madi and coach Welch, they’re amazing, help guide us through a program and we compete (at meets),” Syring said.

Despite not being an especially common college-level sport, Syring managed to be spotted at a meet.

“There’s only about three schools that offer it that I know of that are close. And so I was looking around, and I kind of made some connections,” Syring said, “Coach Baylark, he came up to the meet we had here at the high school in August, saw my performance, and called me the next day and kind of was just like, ‘hey, we want to make you an offer’.”

Thanks to the internet however, being noticed at a meet or game by a recruiter is now not the only way for a college to find you.

“For all sports I’d say what you post on social media, a lot of that nowadays is for recruitment,” Syring said.

It was because of social media that Hubbard was noticed by a college 642 miles away.

“They saw my film and my track times and they just wanted a fast guy that could move and play multiple positions,” Hubbard said.

Last year in track Hubbard qualified for state in the boy’s 4×1 and 100-meter dash.

Syring was also in track alongside Hubbard, where she qualified for state last year when she placed second at regionals for long jump.

“Originally, I ran track. I had multiple regional titles, and gone to state a few times. And I had some health conditions that brought me down,” Syring said.

Those health conditions proved to be the end of Syring’s track career, but it was then when her powerlifting dream really took off.

“I wasn’t able to run so I just kept lifting. And I really took it serious and I was like, I kind of want to go to college for this,” Syring said.

Hubbard will still be part of the track team this season, where it could determine whether he is also part of St. Thomas’ track team.

“They kind of told me I had to run track in high school. Like if I run a good time this year they’ll definitely make me run up there too,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard is still however satisfied with playing football.

“I’ll probably just be playing football, but they do have a pretty good track team. So I might be able to compete in some indoor meets,” Hubbard said.

Despite being a near 2 ½ hour drive, Syring visits her future campus pretty frequently.

“It’s really not that bad of a drive, I could make it there and back, and spend time with family and friends all in one day,” Syring said.

Hubbard will however probably avoid the 9 ½ hour drive, and fly when it’s time to live on campus.

“I’ll probably fly, I’m going to leave my car down here for the first semester because when you’re a freshman you have to live on campus,” Hubbard said, “When you’re a sophomore, junior, senior, you can live off campus, I’ll probably bring my car.”

Hubbard sees the opportunity to play in college as part of his dream of greatness. 

“I just wanted to ever be the most, and that’s what I stuck with,” Hubbard said.

Syring sees her opportunity to compete in college as rewarding, which she views differently from the average person.

“A lot of people see rewarding as like the medals you know, the trophies and stuff, but I see rewarding as being able to lift up those around me and you know, having a good week having a bad week. Both of those things are rewarding to me because it teaches you lessons regardless,” Syring said.