Senior tight end J.D. Larson first became interested in Ohio State when his older sister, Shelaine, attended the university on a full-tuition track and field scholarship in 2001.

“I never really liked college sports much so I was like a sophomore in high school and then I just started being really interested in Ohio State, watching football; that was the year they won the national championship,” Larson said. “I came out to a sports camp here and Ohio State was the only school I applied to. I got in and that’s that.”

Larson, who is in his fifth year at OSU, did not play on the team during his first year. He admitted that although he was a good football player, he was a raw athlete. After gaining weight in his first year, Larson decided he wanted to try out for the team in the winter of his sophomore year.

“I knew some people that kind of worked around with football and I asked … ‘How do you try out? I played football in high school and I want to try out,'” Larson said.

After attending a meeting, Larson went to a try-out session where participants ran a 40-yard dash, shuttle run, vertical jump and other activities to gauge the athletes’ abilities.

On average, Larson said there are usually about five who try out each year and one or two of them end up making it. Fortunately for Larson, the team chose him to continue and begin attending off-season workouts. This is where the team weeds out the kids who do not know what they are getting into, Larson said.

“They just got to find out who can actually do it, because … a lot of guys can run but they just can’t manage their time that well,” Larson said.

Not only did he prove that he could manage his time, but he also took some life lessons out of his time on the team.

“It’s taught me just a lot about life,” Larson said. “I’m taking 24 [credit] hours right now and I’m doing football and I mean if I can do that, I don’t know why I wouldn’t be able to handle the working world or anything like that.”

All of Larson’s hard work has paid off and he was rewarded by being put on scholarship for his senior season. Being an out-of-state student for four years and admittedly “living on ramen and hot dogs” has given Larson a deep appreciation of the honor he received.

“It’s definitely a privilege and it’s awesome to have books and tuition and meals, and you get a lot of money each month, which I don’t even know how to spend,” Larson said. “But I’m sure my girlfriend will find a way to figure that out.”

Larson has gotten into a few games in his career, including playing time this year against Youngstown State, Troy and Minnesota.

Even though he might not have had many opportunities to play, looking back on his time here, Larson says he has had no regrets about staying on the team.

“I came here not even knowing what to do and then my sophomore year I just walked onto the team … three-and-a-half years on the team and I’ve been in two national championships, won two Big Ten titles, I’m from California and I’ve made all the friends in the world … I wouldn’t trade this for anything, and I’ve just had like the greatest time,” Larson said.

Larson is graduating this quarter and is interviewing for jobs, but has not decided exactly what he wants to do. He will be graduating with a degree in family resource management and a minor in business, and said he hopes to get into pharmaceutical sales after school.

Kyle Fischer can be reached at [email protected].