Cy Siegert's Path to Warhawk Football

By Ethan Groom and Will Bierman

“Success isn’t owned, it is leased, and the rent is due every day”. That is a quote from the great JJ Watt, a four-time All-Pro, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL, and he couldn’t be more correct. If you want to be successful in the athletic world, it is going to take work and a lot of commitment. There are a few athletes here at Potosi High school that plan on playing sports at the college level, and you can count on them to keep working hard to pay that rent every single day.

Cy Siegert, a senior football player from Potosi High School, has earned the right to play football at the college level, at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. If you don’t know, Whitewater is a very prestigious school in the division three level of the NCAA. They currently have multiple national championships, over thirty conference championships, and also once held a forty-five game football winning streak. Along with sports, Whitewater is also a very good academic school, especially in business. You can imagine the kind of work that it took for Cyrus to make it to this point in his life.

Cy has always dreamed of playing football at the college level; with great work ethic and commitment, his dream has become a reality. Cy has put in a tremendous amount of time in both the classroom and on the football field to get to where he is and achieve the success that he has. Three and a half hours worth of football was nothing during the football season for Cy, along with an eight hour school day. Even in his offseason, Cy spent at least an hour and a half of his day committed to football, whether that be on the field or in the weight room. You can imagine that balancing all this wasn’t easy. With a steady schedule and extreme work ethic, Cy was able to do it. Cy has sacrificed time with family and friends to be able to accomplish his goal, but when he achieves his goal it will all be worth it. It hasn’t been easy, but Cy has a very good supporting cast that has helped him through tough times.   

Among that support cast are the teachers and coaches that Cy has had at Potosi High School. Those teachers and coaches include many former college athletes, who have been able to help mentor Cyrus. One of those is Cy’s father Mark, who is the head football coach at Potosi High School. He also played college football, at Loras College, so he was able to give Cy plenty of great teachings and advice. With great advice from his father, Cy was able to be quite successful in his football career during his four years at Potosi. Cy accumulated over 400 tackles, multiple all-conference awards, and the school record in tackles in his four years at Potosi. With all of that said Cyrus had a great high school career, but college is a whole different animal and is going to require a lot more. Good thing for Cy he won’t be short on help.

Two more of Cyrus’s high school football coaches, Matthew Eastlick and Mike Uppena, played college sports and have a great amount of advice for him. They gave advice about managing your time and the best ways to do it. They also mentioned how much work it is going to take to be successful, and how to enjoy the process of playing college sports.

“In college, you are going to be spending five or more hours a day at your sport, compared to the two or three hours a day in high school”, said Mike Uppena who played college basketball for the University of Wisconsin - Platteville, and was also one of Cyrus’s football coaches. “I spent about 30 hours a week committed to football”, added Coach Matt Eastlick, who played college football at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville. “It’s almost like having a full-time job”, added Eastlick. That along with school is definitely going to be a challenge for Cyrus, so he is going to have to find a way to balance them while putting maximum effort into both of them.

Along with adjusting to the time commitment, Cy will also have to adjust to playing with a new team. Mr. Uppena said that leaving his high school team and trying to play with a new group of guys was one of the hardest things about the whole transition from high school to college. Although Cy is very good at football and was one of the best players at Potosi, there will be guys that are just as good or better at the college level. One of the first things Mr. Eastlick said when we asked him about college sports was, “I realized I wasn’t the best player anymore.” Cy might not be the best player on the team, but with a good work ethic and attitude, Cy can be successful.

With all the extra time and commitment it takes to play sports at the college level, some people would ask if it is even worth it to go out for sports.  Although it is a lot of work, there are many benefits, one of them being the memories that are made. Mr. Uppena won a Division Three National Championship while playing at Platteville and went on a few trips with the team that he will never forget. College sports will also help develop some good habits and character traits like communication, exercise, and relationships.