The wait is over.
Zach Sterup is going to be a Husker.
The St. Cecilia standout offensive lineman has verbally committed to the Nebraska football team, telling NU assistant coach Barney Cotton of the news Friday last week — a day after meeting with NU's offensive line coach — and announcing it to the rest of the world Tuesday.
"I just knew I wanted to go to Nebraska and I didn't see any point in dragging it on," the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Sterup said Tuesday evening. "I was kind of getting sick of the recruiting process, having to call everybody back and having to deal with all the publicity. I just knew I wanted to go to Nebraska, and I decided I didn't want to wait any longer."
Sterup, a four-star offensive tackle recruit by Rivals.com who will be a senior in the fall, initially had said he planned to wait until the fall before committing.
But, a month after Nebraska became the 11th school to offer Sterup, the offensive tackle made his decision.
"I went down (to Lincoln) Thursday for an unofficial visit and I just met with everybody and had a more in depth visit than I had before," Sterup said. "I just felt real comfortable with everybody, and said it's not going to get any better than this. I just woke up Friday and thought about it and decided that's where I wanted to go — might as well not drag it on any further if I knew where I wanted to go."
Sterup called it a relief to have to the recruiting process out of the way.
"It's really relieving," he said. "It's kind of been hectic now that everyone is calling and having to get back to everyone. After that, things will settle down and hopefully I'll be left alone for a little bit and can just kind of enjoy the summer.
"It's nice to finally be all squared away so I don't have to worry about anything and I can just focus on being a high school student-athlete and working toward my senior season. It's a real weight off my back."
He becomes the Huskers' 12th commitment for the 2011 class, five of which are offensive linemen, and will sign with Nebraska in February.
Sterup had received offers from more than a dozen teams, including Big Ten schools Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Iowa was the first school to offer Sterup, back in February, and joined Nebraska among his top two choices.
Now that he has made his decision, Sterup is looking forward to enjoying the rest of the summer. He was selected to play on the Bison-Nebraska Red basketball team, which features some of state's top to-be senior hoops players, but recently decided against participating on the team.
"It was a big time commitment and this is my last summer in Hastings," Sterup said. "I just want to spend it with friends and family. I also want to focus on football and training throughout the whole summer. I just didn't think I could do that playing basketball. I'm still going to be playing basketball 2-3 times a week with my school team."
Sterup is the first player at St. Cecilia to get a scholarship out of high school to play football at the NCAA Division I level under coach Carl Tesmer, who came to St. Cecilia in 1991.
"I think it's exciting — very, very exciting," Tesmer said. "All the speculation seems to be over."
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