UPPER PENINSULA, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Upper Peninsula had a lot of athletes sign letters of intent to play college sports yesterday. and quite a few chose to stay right here in the U.P. Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan University both had big signing days.
NMU signed 12 athletes, 2 who aren’t coming from very far first up for the Wildcats is Zach person. Person is a 220 pound 6 foot 4 tight end coming from Kingsford High School. He spent the last year playing at Toledo but has decided to come back home to the Upper Peninsula to play for the Cats. Person will be a welcome addition to the wildcats roster, this offseason their top 2 receivers have both entered the transfer portal and it doesn’t seem likely they will return to NMU.
NMU’s other signing is Charles Christensen a 6 foot 5 250 pound offensive tackle and long snapper also coming out of Kingsford high school. For the last few years one of Northerns most experienced position groups has been their o-line, but now following the graduation of 5 multi year starters in just the last 2 years that isn’t the case. Christensen will surely be welcomed into an offensive line that is looking to somewhat rebuild.
Moving up to Houghton, Michigan Tech had a huge recruiting class this year, 30 players have signed letters of intent to join the Huskies 12 of which are from right here in the upper Peninsula. Nate Benninger is a 6 foot 190 pound running back coming out of Marquette senior high. Benninger will help out the offensive backfield for the huskies which had less than 800 rushing yards as a team last season which was the worst in their conference
Next up for the Huskies is 6 foot 4 225 pound tight end Pete Closner also from Marquette senior high. Joining Closner are 2 wide receivers. 5 foot 10 175 pound Luke Gorzynski from north central highschool and 5 foot 11 170 pound nic nora from kingsford high school. The players join a very healthy receiving core from Michigan Tech including Darius Willis who led the entire GLIAC in both receiving yards per game and receiving touchdowns.
On the defensive side of the ball tech signed a defensive back and 2 linebackers Cole Myllyla is a 5 foot 11 170 pound defensive back out of Kingsford High School. The linebackers are brothers Josiah and Micaiah Peramaki who are both 6 feet tall and right around 200 pounds
The trio will be suiting up with Michigan Tech’s strong point, their defense.as a team had 12 interceptions, 6 fumble recoveries and 2 touchdowns last year. Which put them right in the middle of the GLIAC.
Those are all of the signings we have for Upper Peninsula athletes staying here in the U.P for now. Signings can continue for division 2 until August 1st.
