A local high school football standout is celebrating today after his college team, the Lindsey Wilson College Blue Raiders, a school in Columbia, Kentucky, about 100 miles south of Louisville, won the NAIA national championship last week. The game, played at Grambling State in Louisiana and featured on ESPN3, saw the Blue Raiders easily defeat Northwestern (Iowa) 45-13 for the title.
Playing offensive tackle for the Blue Raiders is Eli Cross, a Smithville native and former DCHS Football Tiger. Eli is the son of Tony and Sharon Cross, who were on hand for the game. LWC finished its season at 11-0, winning each game by at least 21 points.
Another factor that makes the win outstanding is the fact that just over a decade ago there was no football program at LWC. “The school has only had a football program since 2010,” Cross told the Smithville Review. “I think it was something like 1935 since the college had a team.”
Due to the pandemic, the NAIA, a college athletics association separate from the NCAA with nearly 100 schools that participate in football, postponed its fall 2020 football season to this spring.
“The win was just unreal,” Cross said. “This is my fourth season with the school, and every year we’ve gotten better, but last season we made it to the semi-finals, the game before the championship, but we lost. But, this season, our smallest margin of victory was 21 points in any game we played. We were pretty dominant. Honestly, it still feels surreal.”
“I started the last three seasons playing left tackle,” Cross continued. “I played the same position for the (DCHS) Tigers, offensive tackle and defensive line too.”
Cross said that to win the championship was awesome, but he is not done with football quite yet. “I graduated this year with my undergrad, but I technically still have two more seasons of eligibility left. My first year at Lindsey I redshirted, so this upcoming year would be my fifth season, but this season doesn’t count towards my eligibility because of the COVID pandemic. That gives me two extra seasons, so right now, barring any injuries, I’m going to finish out playing and finish my master’s degree at the same school.”
While he still plans to be on the field playing football, long term Cross said that being an educator and a coach is something that interests him. “I think right now I would like to coach high school or something. I do business at school, so I wouldn’t care to teach that.” Cross also said that he wouldn’t mind coming back to DeKalb County to begin a teaching career.
