Becoming a preferred walk-on football player at Ohio State was not a difficult decision for Rashid Sesay. If anything, it’s a dream come true, as he watched as a child when Ezekiel Elliott won a national championship with the Buckeyes in 2014.

But for Sesay, an Ohio State roster spot as a running back is the culmination of a renewed love for football, something OSU helped restart and West Muskingum High reaped the benefits of. He ended his career as a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football award — given to the best high school football player in the state — and set multiple school and league records.

“It's just kind of been like a Cinderella story,” Sesay said.

Rashid Sesay finds love for football with Ohio State's help

Sesay says he felt as if he hit rock bottom in 2022.

Days before the start of his junior season, the season Sesay was hoping would jump-start his college recruitment, he suffered a high ankle sprain. And while he made up production in the final seven games of the season, he entered the spring before his senior season with “serious doubt” about being able to play at the next level.

“Nobody was even looking at me at all,” Sesay said. “And I just kind of decided ‘You know what, I’m just going to play high school football and that’s going to be the end of it. I’m not really going to pursue college anymore.’ ”

Nate Brownrigg saw differently. In Sesay, the West Muskingum coach saw a player that helped his program come out of rock bottom.

Brownrigg became West Muskingum’s coach in 2020, Sesay’s freshman year. In the 10 years prior to Brownrigg’s arrival, the Tornadoes had won seven games. In the past four years with Sesay, a player Brownrigg views as “one of the better athletes to come out of this entire area in years,” West Muskingum has won 27 games, including back-to-back playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023.

Brownrigg said he knew the value of a player like Sesay, who rarely left the field as a running back, wide receiver and quarterback on offense, a linebacker on defense and a kick returner on special teams.

Brownrigg sent Sesay’s film to local colleges, including Ohio State, which saw potential. Ed Terwilliger, Ohio State’s director of high school relations who spent 24 seasons as the football coach at Olentangy, invited Sesay and Brownrigg to an OSU practice before the team’s 2022 Peach Bowl against Georgia.

On his first college visit, Sesay was blown away, from the coaches and players he talked to to the facilities he walked through.

“I’m just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to work for this,’ ” Sesay said. “‘I want to be here. This is what I want to do. I want to play for this.’ ”

Before Sesay left Ohio State’s bowl practice, he says, Terwilliger told him how much work he still had to do, challenging him to become the best player in his region as a senior for a shot at a Buckeye roster spot.

And with a renewed love for football, Sesay was ready to live up to the challenge.

“Leaving there, I (had) complete tunnel vision,” Sesay said. “The next eight-to-nine months was just football, football, football. Just complete No. 1 priority.”

Rashid Sesay lives up to Ohio State expectation

With 44 touchdowns — a Muskingum Valley League record — and 2,068 total yards on offense, Sesay was named the Division V football player of the year and one of eight Mr. Football finalists and led the Tornadoes to a league championship.

“He basically did everything that he possibly could on the field,” Brownrigg said.

In another trip to Ohio State, Sesay remembers OSU running backs coach Tony Alford telling him each of his attributes are what he expects from members of his room − footwork, cuts, balance, acceleration and speed.

“‘The way you even just get a handoff, the way you read your vision, it’s all exactly what we possess here at Ohio State,’ ” Sesay said Alford told him. “‘The kind of player you are, that kind of talent you have can easily translate here, and we can see that.’ ”

Sesay said Alford made it clear that he will carry the same expectation of each scholarship member of the process even as he redshirts his freshman season.

“They aren’t going to treat me different from anybody else,” Sesay said. “They are going to expect exactly what they expect out of TreVeyon Henderson, out of Dallan Hayden, out of Emeka Egbuka. They are going to expect everything out of me.”

If anyone can handle that pressure, Brownrigg said, it’s Sesay.

But to Brownrigg, ability is not the most important attribute Sesay brings.

“Just from a personality, from a character perspective, they are getting a first-class kid who is going to do absolutely everything he’s asked and actually more,” Brownrigg said. “He’ll become a leader in the locker room. He’ll be a guy people gravitate toward.”

Brownrigg said Sesay will go to Ohio State with something to prove and with a ceiling and ability that has not been established yet.

“They see a bright future in me, contributing to this team, do everything I can to bring value to the team,” Sesay said.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rashid Sesay joins Ohio State football as preferred walk on