BOARDMAN — The well hasn’t dried up yet at Riverside High School. Tucker Elliot became the first football player in 20 years to earn a scholarship to play for a Division III college, marking a major milestone in the school’s athletic history.

Elliot, 18, a senior at Riverside, not only achieved a personal goal but also made school history by signing with Muskingum University, a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III program in Ohio — an accomplishment that highlights his dedication on the field and sets a new standard for future RHS Pirate athletes.

“I’m kind of surprised,” Elliot said, laughing. “If you had told me as a freshman that I’d be playing Division III football, I would’ve thought you were crazy. Back then, I never would have imagined getting this far.”

Elliot said he didn’t think the university would accept him into its program when he received the email. He believed his transcript wouldn’t meet the requirements, but something inside him told him to give it a shot anyway.

To his surprise, the university accepted him a few days later and offered him an academic scholarship soon after.

“For me, becoming a coach was always about helping my student-athletes reach the next level,” said Tyler Volpi, Riverside football head coach. “For him to go to college on a football scholarship made me incredibly happy. It’s a great honor to be part of his life and this step in his journey toward building his future.”

Buck Elliot, Tucker’s father and a defensive coach at Riverside, said he felt excited and proud, knowing his son was the first in their family to reach this level.

“Boardman is a small town that often gets overlooked, and coaches are working to bring more attention to Eastern Oregon — for both the schools and the community,” Buck said.

Football has been Tucker Elliot’s entire life. He first started playing in the first grade when he and his family lived in Louisiana.

After his grandmother died, he and his family moved to Oregon on New Year’s Day 2016. But his passion for the game never left him — he carried it across state lines and onto the Boardman football fields.

“He came from football in the South — SEC (Southeastern Conference) football is a way of life down there,” Buck said.

In contrast, he said, the attitude toward football in Oregon tends to be more casual. That difference, he noted, made it easier to push his son to excel. Tucker had experienced a higher level of competition and helped elevate his teammates to match it.

Turning pain into purpose

Although Tucker Elliot had the skills to play the game, he faced several challenges early on — one of the biggest coming during his freshman year. While he eventually played as a defensive end, wearing No. 52, coaches initially placed him at offensive center, the player who snaps the ball to the quarterback.

“Most of our seniors quit that year,” he said. “I was about 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds — pretty light — and they put me in as the starting center. I wanted to quit football at that point.”

He recalled going up against a much larger opponent.

“He looked like he paid a mortgage,” Elliot said, laughing. “He just kept throwing me around.”

The repeated physical challenges during his freshman and sophomore years tested him, but ultimately made him stronger.

“Getting beat up over and over made me realize there’s a different side to football,” he said. “It’s not just about playing — it’s about putting in the work in the weight room, training hard and building yourself up.”

Over the years, he grew into a 5-foot-11½, 225-pound athlete with a 40-yard dash time of 5.5 seconds. His strength numbers include a 275-pound bench press, 405-pound squat, 405-pound deadlift and a 225-pound clean.

Another major challenge for Elliot was staying focused academically during his freshman year.

“I didn’t care about high school at all,” he said. “I didn’t really want to go to college, and I struggled with school. Mentally, I just wasn’t there.”

But that changed when a college showed interest in him as a football player. Realizing he had a real opportunity to play at the next level, Elliot began putting in more effort — on the field and in the classroom — and turned things around.

Elliot said he hopes to grow athletically and academically in college. He looks forward to deepening his understanding of the sport he loves and discovering a new appreciation for learning.

“ If you put your mind in anything, I think you can do anything,” he said.

Elliot has already begun preparing for the college athletic program by studying game film. And soon he’ll start the school’s weight training program.

He’ll also take the field  June 20 in La Grande in the first Nine-Man All-Star Game at Eastern Oregon University before packing for his move to New Concord, Ohio — home of the Fighting Muskies at Muskingum University.