SPARTA – For Highland senior Landon Remmert, athletics and academics go hand in hand.
That was the main reason Remmert chose Ohio Northern University. He wanted to play multiple sports.
Remmert will play football and run track with the Polar Bears next year, he said in a ceremony held at the Highland High School library on Monday, April 12.
“Their track and football programs work really well together,” Remmert said. “They were giving me the opportunity to do both. That was very interesting for me and I was excited about that.”
As exciting as it is to go to school and play sports, the deciding factor was the former.
“They have a really good construction management program,” he said. “I’m really excited about that.”
Remmert hopes to move back to Morrow County and open up his own business after he graduates.
“I’m not one who really likes to sit in a classroom,” he said. “I’ll do it if I have to. (Construction management) is really hands-on. It entails what I really enjoy — which I think, going forward, that’ll be a career that I really enjoy. They always say, ‘Go into something that you like because you won’t work a day in your life.’ So that’s the goal, I guess.”
Sports are a catalyst for that. Remmert sees sports as the thing that keeps him focused academically. He also played basketball at Highland.
“I’m gonna be busy for sure,” he said. “I feel like — for me — I’ve always been a three-sport athlete. I couldn’t see myself doing one without the other (in terms of academics and athletics). Without my athletics, who knows where I would be. I feel like time-management-wise, my athletics keep me in line.”
It was a breakout season for him and Highland, which finished 4-5 overall and 3-3 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference. The Scots pushed top-seeded St. Clairsville to the limit in the second round of the Division IV, Region 15 playoffs before falling 47-30.
“He’s just a kid that showed up and worked hard,” former Highland football coach Matt Jones said. “It was just a breakout year. It’s funny because after one of our games where he played really well toward the end of the season … I said something to him.
“I said, ‘Man, you’re really coming into your own. What the heck is going on?’ in just kind of a joking manner. He said with kind of a smile, ‘Coach, we don’t run the Wing-T anymore.’ I just started laughing. I said, ‘You know what? We actually use a wide receiver now.’”
Remmert was a key part of the new spread offense for the Scots last fall, when he caught 69 passes for 623 yards and eight touchdowns.
“A receiver in the Wing-T — even if you’re successful — it’s tough to watch and be a part of,” he said. “I was always willing to do it. When we changed to the spread this year, I was just all about it. I was so excited going into my senior year for it.”
Remmert is just as important to the track team.
“Landon is incredibly an academic young man,” said Chip Wendt, who coaches Highland track and field with Eric Myers. “He’s very analytical, and sometimes I have to keep that at bay. He’s very meticulous with proper form. Those are things that we really center ourselves on.
“I don’t have — right now — any true hurdlers after him. After he leaves, there’s going to be a vacuum, a real drought when he leaves. He’s a great example to the middle school kids right now.”
