QB Beetham pledges to Illinois
Yorkville (Ill) senior quarterback recruit Josh Beetham (6-foot-3, 195 pounds) had several various college options and scholarship offers, yet playing in the Big Ten conference has been his lifelong dream. Beetham passed on scholarship money from other schools to accepted a preferred walk on offer from the University of Illinois and discusses his decision here.
"It's been a dream of mine forever to play college football in the Big Ten," Beetham said. "Illinois is giving me an opportunity to make that dream happen and it's took hard for me to pass it up so I committed to Illinois."
Beetham , who made an official visit to Illinois this past weekend pointed towards his official visit as a big selling point in locking in his decision.
"My weekend official visit was big and very important in choosing Illinois. I had never been to Illinois until this weekend and I came away feeling really good about Illinois. In all honesty everything at Illinois stood out. The coaches at Illinois are experienced and they also have great connections to the NFL. The new facilities at Illinois are just amazing and I really enjoyed getting to meet and hang out with the players over the weekend. They really filled me in on what the team and the school is all about. The players really answered a lot of questions I had about Illinois."
Beetham, who is planning to major in Sports Management at Illinois also could not pass up the strong academic appeal offered in Champaign.
"Illinois offers a great education and the sports management program is outstanding. Even if I never played any college football just getting a degree from Illinois is a huge appeal for sure. My dream job would be to eventually end up being a general manager for a team in the NFL, and between the connections to the NFL already on the staff at Illinois to the great academics program, Illinois is an easy decision."
Beetham, who had several scholarship offers at the FCS and D2 level is thrilled to have his college decision made and discusses what was the hardest part of the recruiting process.
"I think just waiting on school to decide on whether they would offer me or not was the hardest part of the process. I would see other kids commit to different schools and just wonder if all the hard work I put in was going to be worth it. In the end it definitely paid off and I'm very happy and excited about my decision to go to Illinois and play for the Fighting Illini."