Featured Future is a summer series where the Observer will highlight local student athletes who are preparing to continue their athletic and educational careers at the college level, or those who have already begun that journey.
A four-sport athlete at Durant, Ty Merkle officially signed his national letter of intent to continue his academic and athletic journey as a football player at Valdosta State University.
But despite his involvement all across Durant athletics — playing baseball, football, basketball and being a member of the track team — the road to Valdosta State football was far from a simple one.
Primarily a baseball player growing up, starting baseball when he was four years old, Merkle entered his junior year at Durant having never played a down of high school football. In fact, his only football experience was one season in seventh grade with the Pinecrest Pilots youth football program. Already towering over his peers at 6-foot-7, Merkle took the advice of his physical education teacher — also a coach with the football team — and joined Durant football. Without even a chance to gain experience through spring ball as it interfered with his sophomore baseball season, Merkle joined the football team as a prospective quarterback that summer. But despite coming out to be a quarterback, he was quickly moved to defensive end where he would flourish over the following two seasons.
“My P.E. teacher was actually a football coach and he just wanted me to give football a shot at quarterback, actually,” Merkle said. “That’s how I started getting into it and I didn’t have much success at quarterback so I moved over to defensive end eventually and started thriving.”
With extremely limited football experience in general, let alone as a brand new member of Durant’s offensive line, Merkle says that along with his coaches, he learned from teammate Leo Tabakovich — a game-wrecker at defensive end for Durant as a senior in 2021, totaling 45 tackles 18.5 tackles for loss and a district-leading 11.5 sacks en route to a Hillsborough County Defensive Player of the Year nomination for the 7A and 8A classes.
In his junior season, Merkle found action in six games where he totaled 15 tackles, two tackles for loss and one forced fumble. And despite it being just his first year of high school ball, offers for both football and baseball began to roll in, but his eyes were now locked on football. Merkle continued to improve throughout the spring and focused all summer on adding weight and strength, putting on 30 pounds as he jumped from 215 pounds to over 240 heading into his senior season. With improved technique alongside his developing tools and size, Merkle’s production took leaps forward as well, finishing the 2022 season with 54 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and a team-high 4.5 sacks.
Now with right around 30 offers for football, coming from an array of Division II and Division III schools — also including one DI program in Florida State — Merkle began to weigh his options and creep closer to a decision on where he would ultimately make his commitment.
A coach originally put Merkle in contact with Valdosta State and they liked what they saw, inviting him on a visit for their homecoming game. As days and weeks went by, he continued to struggle with making a final commitment. In the process of making a decision, he was invited and subsequently made a visit to FSU. And noting his visit to Florida State was a great experience in ways, Merkle added that it just didn’t feel like home — a feeling that he eventually found with Valdosta State
“That was a long process,” Merkle said. “The day of our banquet was when I made my decision. A few weeks had gone by and I was really struggling to figure stuff out. I was deciding, but then I got a call from FSU and went up there. Then I went on my official visit to Valdosta State and they gave me two days to make my decision. That was rough, and at the same time I was playing basketball, but right before one of our basketball games I sent a text saying, ‘I’m 100 percent in, I am fully committing to Valdosta State.’ And visiting Valdosta, I was uneasy about it at first, I was asking myself, what did I get myself into?’ But then I visited for second time and felt a little more comfortable and when I went up there for their spring game this year I got to hang around, explore the area a little more which was super nice, all of the people were super nice, good people, and I just felt more and more comfortable.”
One thing that stuck out to Merkle about Valdosta State was the fact that they boast a top-five defense in all of Division II, offering him a chance to learn alongside some of the best players and coaches that the class can offer. He looked at all of the players that have been drafted out of Valdosta State or have started at Valdosta State before moving on to bigger programs and finding a path through the draft that way. On the other side, he mentioned that the coaching staff said that he had things to work on, but liked his size, his speed, the way he moved.
A program with a history of winning, 2023 will be the second season under head coach Tremaine Jackson. Despite a 5-6 record in Jackson’s first year, the Blazers’ program boasts nine Gulf South Conference championships, 18 Division II playoff appearances, six Division II regional championships and four Division II national championships. Valdosta State claimed their most recent conference and regional championships in 2021, with their most recent National Championship victory coming in 2018.
“There’s a lot of expectations coming into this program,” Merkle said. “They want you for a reason, you’re not just there to be there. They’ve had so many guys drafted, there have been so many guys that have gone through there and gone on to a bigger school and gotten drafted, there’s just a lot of expectations going there. You’re going to one of the best Division II schools and what you put in is what you’re going to get out. They want you giving 110 percent effort every single time. Every rep, every sprint, never giving up, never complaining, just working.”
Graduating from Durant on May 30, Merkle made his way up to Valdosta just days later to begin training alongside the football program.
