Oak Harbor graduate Myles Backus is doing something this fall that many people only wish they were able to do: compete in college athletics.

Backus is playing soccer at Lake Erie College, a Division II school located in Painesville, Ohio.

At Oak Harbor, Backus was a decorated athlete, lettering in three sports (soccer, football and track and field).

In soccer, Backus was a vital member of a team that won the SBC two years in a row and advanced to the district semifinals last season. In fact, two of Backus’ teammates on that team, Phil Wierich and Tyler Eoff, will begin their collegiate soccer careers this year as well. Wierich, who as the Division II Player of the Year in 2010, is going to be freshman at Defiance College and Eoff, is attending Heidelberg University in Tiffin.

All in all, Oak Harbor’s Class of 2011 has six athletes competing in collegiate athletics this school year. In addition to Backus, Wierich and Eoff, D.J. Everett and Josh Warnke are set to play baseball this coming spring at the Univ. of Findlay and Baldwin-Wallace College, respectively, and Dayna Setzler will play soccer at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

In track, Backus was quite successful as well, advancing to the regional meet in the 100 meters and finishing second at the Sandusky Bay Conference Meet in both the 100 and the long jump. (In fact, there is also a possibility that Backus could serve as a member of Lake Erie College’s track and field squad in the spring.) Backus was also the football team’s place kicker for the past seasons.

Backus, who, prepared for the upcoming season by taking part in some intense workouts during the summer, left for Painesville in mid-August to prepare for the upcoming season, is encouraged about joining his new club.

“I have gotten to know my teammates and like them,” he said. “I’m just hoping that I can contribute and that this can be a good season for us.

“The conditioning we’ve done as a team has been very difficult. It’s nothing like what I did in high school.”

Under first-year head coach Davie Carmichael, the Storm have begun the season with a 4-5-2 record and are 2-2-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), good for fifth place. It is already an improvement over last year’s record, when the team struggled mightily, finishing 1-16-1 and 0-12 in the GLIAC in its first year competing in Division II. The GLIAC, which is home to 14 schools, includes nearby universities Findlay, Ashland and Tiffin, as well as other schools located throughout Ohio and Michigan. In soccer, however, the conference only fields seven teams.

The Storm, which saw nearly half of its team graduate in the past year, has 25 newcomers to the squad, meaning that some growing pains are likely in order for a squad is growing accustomed to playing against more elite competition.

As for Backus, he has yet to play this season because he is recovering from an ankle injury he suffered over the summer. As a freshman, he will have the opportunity to learn from some of the upperclassmen, allowing him to gain knowledge, better understand the college game and slowly work his way into the lineup.

Rob Schimmoeller, who was Backus’ soccer coach at Oak Harbor, is confident that Backus will be able to be an asset to his team even as a freshman.

“I believe that Myles’ athleticism and physical maturity will allow him to be a contributor as a freshman.”

Schimmoeller notes the strides Backus made during his four years playing soccer in high school.

“Myles has always had speed, but, from his freshman year to his senior year, he hit the weight room and developed physical strength, allowing him not to be knocked off the ball and adding tremendous speed and distance to his kicks.”

Lake Erie College is a small, liberal arts institution with approximately 1200 students that offers 37 undergraduate majors. The school is located roughly 30 miles northeast of Cleveland, just off the shores of Lake Erie.

When it comes to adjusting to new places and situations, Backus is used to that. Because his father served in the U.S. Marine Corps for over 20 years, Backus’ childhood saw him travel across the country and live in a variety of places. The family lived Virginia, North Carolina and California before finally settling in Ohio six years ago.

Backus will major in biology with a minor in environmental science.

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