By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Another member of the Helena Huskies football team has committed to further his athletic career at the collegiate level, bringing the total number of seniors playing at the next level to five from Helena’s Class of 2016.

Families, coaches, friends and teammates all gathered at the Helena High School athletic field house on Wednesday, April 13, to witness senior offensive lineman Tyler Rose sign to play college football with Grove City College located in Grove City, Pa.

Rose will head north to play for the Wolverines who compete in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, a NCAA Division III school.

Tyler’s father, Jarrod Rose, told a story at the signing ceremony that ended up being a large part of why Tyler chose to attend Grove City.

All of Tyler’s family lives in the Ohio-Pennsylvania region and over Christmas break this past year Tyler and Jarrod decided to head to Grove City to check out the campus.

Jarrod said as they were walking on campus everything was quiet and most of the buildings were locked due to students being away for the holidays.

However, first year head football coach Andrew Didonato saw the two on campus and personally took them on a tour of the school and showed them some of the facilities.

This gesture made a large impact on Tyler, who said he felt at home afterwards.

“I truly thought it was God’s plan,” said Tyler. “I walked in and everything was locked up and coach DiDonato was just there and he got hired two weeks prior so that had a really big impact on me.”

Tyler’s freshmen offensive line coach and current linebackers coach Dale Massey had several words of encouragement and shared stories about Tyler and reiterated that Tyler would be successful in the future.

Tyler was happy and relieved to put the recruiting process behind him, and is looking forward to reporting to campus in the fall.

“It feels really good actually to put in all that work and to go to practice every day, even sometimes when you don’t want to go,” said Tyler. “Once you get a result and everybody’s behind you it feels really good.”