Nick Gruesen has officially committed to play football at Northern Michigan University, a decision he has been mulling over for some time. 

“I was discerning if I wanted to play football about halfway through the recruiting process just to make sure it was something I really wanted to do,” said Gruesen.

He stated that the brotherhood and camaraderie built on a football team helped lead him to make the decision to continue his athletic career.

Gruesen had quite the senior season as the starting kicker on varsity, making four of five field goal attempts and 71 of 74 extra points including a perfect seven for seven on extra points in the State Championship Game.

As far as competition goes, Gruesen said that he will be competing with a senior kicker when he arrives on campus next year, but is the only kicker to commit to Northern Michigan in this recruiting class. 

“Kicking is a week-to-week thing so it will be very competitive right away,” said Gruesen. “Some weeks the other guy will be on point, and other weeks the other guy won’t be on point.”

Gruesen said that he has been on campus a number of times and loves both the campus and the surrounding area.

“People up there are super nice and everything is outdoorsy,” he said. 

Gruesen mentioned that he was given a small offer by UW Eau Claire, but he was mainly focused on Northern Michigan.

“I kind of put all my eggs in one basket. I was thinking that I really wanted to go to NMU, and it was just a matter of playing football or not,” said Gruesen.

One draw that Northern Michigan had over every other school in the country is that Gruesen’s current girlfriend, Sydney Whitehouse, is playing basketball for the Wildcats women’s team. 

Gruesen even mentioned that Coach Lindquist said, “Your girlfriend goes here, right?”

Gruesen concluded by saying, “I’m really excited to see how far I’ll go in terms of improvement. I am excited to grow my craft and see what my potential can be.”