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More Than A Dream: Northview Grad Very First To Sign With UWF Argos

The University of West Florida Argo football team fell in the national championship game on Saturday. Not a bad way at all to cap just the second ever season for the team..

Editor’s note: This story was originally published prior to the national championship game.

And for Northview High School graduate Blake McCall, the game marks the end of a three year dream. McCall made history in December 2014 as the very first student athlete to sign with the new University of West Florida football team during the NCAA midyear transfer signing period.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable to be here,” McCall told NorthEscambia.com from Kansas City, KS, Friday afternoon, just over 24 hours ahead of kickoff of the NCAA Division II National Championship game against Texas A&M-Commerce. “I’m not sure anybody really thought we’d be here right now; it’s taken some of us by surprise.”

“I knew we would do well; it’s just unreal,” the UWF senior remarked.

Putting it all on the line in a championship game is not new to McCall. It wasn’t the national stage, but a first-ever state title for the Northview Chiefs in 2012.

McCall helped lead Northview to an 11-3 overall record and a 4-0 district record as a senior. Northview averaged 42.9 points per game and took the Florida Class 1A state championship with a 42-21 win over Trenton High School during his senior year. McCall was a three-year starter and played all five positions in the offensive line.

“That was a crazy senior year,” said Mccall, who grew up in Bratt about a mile away from Northview. “I keep telling the guys now about being in a championship game, even though it was on a smaller scale.”

In 2013, he redshirted during his freshman year at Division I Jackson State. And during the 2014 season, he saw playing time as a redshirt freshman at Jackson State. On the offensive line, McCall helped lead the team to 25.8 points and 376.1 total yards per game.

Then he met a coach named Pete Shinnick who was working to build a brand new team at the University of West Florida.

“He is one of the most genuine guys I ever met. He was selling a new team when he recruited me, and I have learned that he does what he says,” McCall said.

Perhaps partially due to the inspiration instilled by Shinnick, McCall hopes to coach college football when he graduates.

But in the here and now, he knows that folks back home in Bratt and North Escambia will be rooting for their hometown boy as they watch the game on ESPN2 beginning at 5:00. (The game is also available on the WatchESPN app.)

“I love that community,” he said. “I have received so many Facebook messages and texts from people back home. It means a lot.”

Now, he’s focused on Saturday  evening as the DII national  championship game kicks off.

“Knowing that you are here in the national championship game will take your breath away,” McCall said as he nears his final football game. “Man what a way to go out. It’s surreal.”

Pictured top: Blake McCall, John Williamson and Devin Gibson at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, KS — site of today’s NCAA Division II National Championship. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.