Former Colony lineman to play college football in North Dakota

PALMER — Rio Stewart’s plans for the future didn’t always involve playing college football. But the 2011 graduate of Colony High recently realized it’s too soon for his career to be over.

Stewart has signed a National Letter of Intent to attend North Dakota State College of Science and will play football for the Wildcats.

“I can’t see myself not playing football,” Stewart said Monday.

Stewart is the second Colony High athlete to sign with a NDSCS team within the last year. Former Colony volleyball standout Shellina Irwin, another 2011 graduate, will join the Wildcat spikers in the spring.

Stewart played football for four seasons at Colony and was a two-year varsity starter at left offensive tackle. As a senior Stewart was named first-team All-Railbelt Conference and second-team all-state. But despite that success, the prospects of hitting the next level weren’t on his radar.

“Throughout high school, I never really thought about playing college football,” Stewart said.

But that changed.

Stewart continued to hit the gym. He worked out alongside friend and teammate Trey Farber, who committed to play football at Linfield College in Oregon before the end of the school year. He also watched other teammates such as linebacker Dakota Wainwright (Montana-Northern), quarterback Anthony Bricker (Lewis and Clark) and Skye Rench (Valley City State) ink their intents.

“Seeing a lot of that, I decided I’m doing something,” Stewart said.

Stewart jumped in the game fairly late in the recruiting process, but had enough time to catch the eye of the NDSCS coaching staff. About a month ago, Stewart said, he began to seriously consider the idea of attending the Wahpeton, N.D., school and playing for the junior college program. Stewart said he felt comfortable and really didn’t see the need to explore the possibility of another school and program.

“These coaches were really nice to me and seemed really interested,” Stewart said.

Stewart, a 6-foot-1 and 260-pound lineman, hopes to continue playing offensive tackle with the Wildcats. He’s been working out five days a week, trying to get bigger and stronger, and hopes to see playing time as a freshman.