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DOWAGIAC — Senior Hunter Williamson will continue his academic and athletic career at Olivet College.

Williamson, who played football and baseball for the Chieftains, was sold on Olivet after seeing the campus.

“After several visits in the tri-state area, Olivet felt like home to me,” Williamson said. “I had visited several schools and participated in many camps. Olivet initially was not on my radar. I actually was on a game day visit with Olivet’s rival school late last season for the conference championship game. I was impressed with everything I saw on the field with Olivet.”

Williamson was also impressed with the way Olivet played the game.

“The Olivet style on the game field felt like home to me,” he said. “There was a difference in the playing style and product on the field during that game day visit. Watching them play was infectious and heavily resembled Dowagiac football to me. Olivet was a late decision that snuck in the back door. I made a late visit, and the coaching staff, players and personnel were genuine and very family-oriented. The Olivet facilities are perfect for a small college. Overall, it was the staff, players and program that made my decision a very comfortable one.”

The other schools that had interested Williamson were Saginaw Valley State University, which was his top choice, Trine University, Vermillion, Ohio Northern, Hocking and Minnesota State.

“I wanted to make two more visits, before the pandemic cut those short, before I made my final commitment,” Williamson said. “Overall, Olivet did the best job at crossing off my personal checklist. I was lightly pursuing some baseball opportunities as well until COVID-19 really put a monkey wrench into late baseball recruiting.”

Williamson will be studying business and sports management at Olivet.

Like many other athletes, Williamson has been doing his best to keep in shape during the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe’ mandate.

“Fortunately, I have equipment in my basement where I can do most all my basic lifts and cable work,” he said. “I do a little biking as well to help with cardio.”

He has been keeping in touch with teammates to see how they are doing.

“I stay in contact with most of them,” he said. “It is a very sore subject, so we just leave that topic out of the conversation mostly. They are all ‘fine’ on the outside, but honestly, I know they are as frustrated as I am inside. We have strong seniors and a great crop of younger talent that surely would have competed and been a very tough unit. This year was going to be a great opportunity for coach [Keith] Schreiber to really begin to develop his program with the younger talent. We were really looking forward to shocking some people on the diamond and continuing to build up the program.”