Area athletes living dream
By Gary Ogle
Telegraph-Forum staff
VERNON TOWNSHIP -- The only thing small about Chris Rietschlin is his hometown. Everything else about the Buckeye Central graduate -- his size, his dreams and the football stadium he'll be playing in this fall -- is huge.
Even the family garage bursting at the seams with weight-lifting and workout equipment is overwhelming.
"This is what I did so I could get to Ohio State," Rietschlin said with a wave that revealed the enormous wingspan on his 6-foot-5, 275-pound frame.
Rietschlin is living large after becoming one of just three players, out of 95 who tried out in January, to be invited to be part of the 105-man roster for the start of OSU's training camp Sunday. The defensive end will wear number 95.
"It's pretty amazing," Rietschlin said. "The whole experience is."
Like almost every high school football player in the Buckeye state, Rietschlin harbored dreams of playing for Ohio State. Although he was a two-way starter on the line and an all-league performer at Buckeye Central,
Ohio Stadium and the Big Ten seemed to be out of reach for a lineman who measured 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds as a senior regardless of what the program might have said.
The first two years of his collegiate football career were spent at Marietta and Ohio Dominican.
"That was the goal originally," Rietschlin said about playing at Ohio State. "When I went to Marietta, that was in the back of my mind of what I wanted to do."
But, he admitted, "I never thought I could actually do it."
