Mister Minnesota
West Side’s 6-foot-7, 300-pound senior offensive tackle De’Eric Mister commits to Golden Gophers
West Side senior De’Eric Mister is a relative newcomer to football.
That didn’t prevent the 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive tackle from developing into a Division I prospect.
Mister verbally committed to Minnesota earlier this month after receiving a number of offers since the start of the new year and experiencing a more intense recruiting period in the spring.
He was more of a baseball player growing up, with basketball also part of the equation, and he didn’t begin playing football in earnest until he was a freshman.
“That’s when I fell in love with it,” Mister said.
He had tried to stoke that passion earlier, including in Pop Warner.
“I was too big,” he said. “That’s when they still had a weight limit. I walked in, and the dude told me to walk right back out.”
Mister gave it another go in seventh grade. “I tried it again, and I didn’t like it,” he said.
In the meantime, he stuck with baseball and basketball into middle school.
“That’s when I started drifting away from baseball,” Mister said. “I always liked basketball.”
He added with a laugh, “But I was always the fat kid getting the rebounds.”
When he reached high school, Mister viewed it as a fresh start. He vowed to participate in a sport in all three seasons: football in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring.
“When I got introduced to football my freshman year, it clicked,” he said.
With his physical tools, desire to learn and work ethic, Mister’s improvement was swift and dramatic.
Mister also had offers from Ball State, Central Michigan, Columbia, Dartmouth, Illinois State, Kentucky, Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan and Division II power Grand Valley State.
“They were paying attention to me,” he said of Minnesota. “It was an easy decision. I knew what I wanted. There was no point in waiting.”
Mister said he wasn’t planning to commit at this point. But the process crystallized even more during his trip to Minnesota, when he was hosted by offensive tackle Martes Lewis, a 2020 Merrillville graduate.
Mister informed Minnesota offensive line coach Brian Callahan and head coach P.J. Fleck of his decision before leaving campus.
“The main thing, it felt like home,” Mister said. “I felt comfortable there. I had a good time with the players and the coaches.
“One of the main things that pulled me in, they talked about life after football. They talked about what I could do for the program, but also what the program could do for me. It brought me in, that I was more than a football player.”
Mister, who plans to study kinesiology, certainly has NFL aspirations. But he’s concentrating on a step-by-step approach.
“They told me they like my athleticism and how I stay on blocks up and down the field and how I protect the quarterback,” he said. “They want me to get better at my run-blocking, and that’s what I plan to do.
“I know I’m still a little bit raw, but I’m just going to keep working to get even better.”
Mister has been splitting his time between basketball and football workouts this summer. After playing on the West Side basketball program’s junior varsity team as a sophomore, when the Cougars nearly reached the Class 4A state championship game, he opted not to play last season. He focused his efforts on the weight room and squaring away his recruitment.
But Mister is eager to return to his basketball roots. He also wants to build on the football team’s 6-3 record from last season, the Cougars’ best since going 8-4 in 2013.
Alger Boswell has taken over as coach after Eric Schreiber departed to become Hobart’s defensive coordinator following two seasons at West Side.
“With our new head coach, I’ve just been helping my team, getting my team used to the plays and the program,” Mister said. “We had a lot of seniors that graduated, but we have a lot of freshmen that are ready to play and working hard. This upcoming senior class, we’re going to lead these guys the right way.”