Tatum Wessel didn’t have much trouble deciding on what college he was going to play football at next year.

The Montgomery County senior will be playing at Missouri Valley College for the 2025 season after signing a letter of intent on Feb. 4 at the MCHS gymnasium. Missouri Valley College is an NAIA school in Marshall.

Wessel’s mother, Angela, grew up in Marshall – which is 110 miles west of Montgomery County – and his father, Landon, played football at Missouri Valley. So, the decision of picking Missouri Valley as his new home was an easy one for the 6-foot-tall, 215-pound linebacker.

“I kind of thought about it my whole life,” Wessel said. “It always went back to the homecomings and the football games there. My mom’s family lives there, so I’m always there anyway.”

Ten of Wessel’s family members attended the signing, which was held in the afternoon. Wessel said he was pleased with the turnout.

“It’s crazy,” Wessel said. “Everybody wanted to come. It felt pretty good. It felt special to me.”

Wessel turned in an outstanding football career that included two all-Eastern Missouri Conference awards, two all-district awards and one academic all-state honor.

Wessel said he will miss playing for the Wildcats next year.

“I have to start all over,” the senior said. “I had a lot of friends in this program over the years. It’s always hard to end the season. I’m going to miss them all and all of those who graduated before me.”

Wessel was a strong performer on defense for MCHS, recording over 200 tackles in the last two years. He had 106 in his junior year and 97 last fall.

“That’s the best part about football,” Wessel said. “You get to be the hammer and knock the nail on offense.”

Now, Wessel will look to carry his successful high school football career to Missouri Valley, which has 17 conference championships, two national runner-up finishes and 13 national bowl finishes in its history. The Vikings finished 4-6 last year.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Wessel, who started playing football when he was in third grade. “Only seven percent of the world gets to do what they love at the collegiate level. It’s pretty special to me. Hopefully, I’ll meet some new lifelong friends and we’ll be pretty close.”

Missouri Valley hired LaQuentin Black as its new head coach. He replaced Casey Creehan.

“I really don’t know what to expect, but I watched the press conference and I was excited,” Wessel said. “I was ready to run through a wall for him, talking about being perfect in every aspect of the game. It’s kind of like ‘Remember The Titans.’”

Wessel plans to major in agribusiness at Missouri Valley. He said he wants to be a conservation agent in the future.