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County QBs headed to Wabash
Hayden Rudes and Christian Zeffel competed against each other last fall as the quarterbacks for North Putnam and South Putnam, respectively.
Next fall, the two all-around athletes will become teammates as they join the successful football program at Wabash College.
Rudes led the Cougars to the Putnam County championship last fall, completing 94 of 182 passes for 1,455 yards and 12 touchdowns with only five interceptions.
He also ran 88 times for 249 yards and seven more scores.
Zeffel completed 71 of 170 passes for 946 yards and six touchdowns, and was also a threat as a runner with 399 yards on 123 carries and nine touchdowns.
Rudes is pleased with his college choice, and is looking forward to continuing his football career.
“The place just blew me away,” he said. “There were just wonderful people when I visited there, and a beautiful campus. It is a great school where I will be able to learn a lot.”
The Little Giants are traditionally one of the top teams in the North Coast Athletic Conference, and the team’s coaches represented themselves well to Rudes.
“The way they presented themselves was impressive,” he said. “They were all about me first, and not about them. A lot of colleges want to talk about themselves first, but they wanted to make sure it was the best fit for me.”
Rudes would like to play quarterback for the Little Giants, but admits he hasn’t spoken specifically to his future coaches.
“If there’s somewhere else I can help besides there, I will play anywhere they want me to,” he said. “I will do my part.”
Rudes will major in political science and religion at Wabash.
“I’m going to miss the Friday night lights and the brotherhood of North Putnam football,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll have any night games at Wabash or not. It will be different playing in the daytime.”
Coach Sam Carnes will definitely miss the quarterback of his first Cougar squad, but sees good things for him at the next level.
“We made some changes this year, and Hayden took all those in stride,” Carnes said. “There were a lot of people who could have pushed back against changing things, but he was totally on board with everything we did. He was the most ready to learn the new offense, and he took it in stride and handled it well.”
Carnes has no doubt that Rudes will do whatever he can to help the Little Giants.
“He is very much that way, and will do a great job at any position,” he said.
Zeffel will definitely be making a position change in college, as he will focus on playing defensive back for the Little Giants.
“Johnathan Thibodeau [a 2017 South Putnam graduate] is a defensive back there, and it will be good to play with him again.”
Zeffel said the Wabash coaches reached out to him last May, and he was also impressed with them and the school.
“I thought it would be a good experience to go there,” he said. “I like the football program and the academics at the school. It’s a great fit for me.
“They want me to play cornerback,” Zeffel added. “That was definitely what I started off playing in high school.”
Zeffel was one of several players who rarely left the field for the Eagles, and he’s looking forward to being able to focus on just one task.
“It’s going to be way easier to focus on one thing,” he said.
Zeffel is unsure of his exact plans, but may major in either psychology or sociology with a minor in business.
“I never thought about playing college football until last year and schools started contacting me,” he said. “It’s going to be fun to get to keep playing.”
South Putnam coach Nathan Aker thinks Zeffel has made a good choice.
“The first thing we tell our guys if they’re going to go on and play college football is to take care of things in the classroom first,” Aker said. “He definitely does that every day. He fits into their culture, and they were excited to get him to come up and join them for football.”
Aker agreed that only having one job will help Zeffel as a player.
“That’s definitely something that will help him to develop as a defensive back,” Aker said. “Talking with Johnathan Thibodeau last summer, he said there’s a big adjustment to college football. They will play more than two coverages, but he will be able to adjust.”