Christian Ortiz recently signed his letter of intent to attend Mount Marty University in South Dakota, a NCAA Division I school. Pictured, in front, from left, are: Laurie Smith, Christian Ortiz and Gilberto Ortiz. In back are assistant coach Bob Krenzer, Superintendent Michael Mansfield, high school assistant principal Jamie Berg and head football coach Mike Sarratori. Submitted photo

With the high school sports season officially at a close for the 2020-21 school year, student athletes are getting into crunch time to make the decision of where to play at the next level. Dunkirk’s Christian Ortiz is one who has now made his decision.

Ortiz recently signed his letter of intent to attend Mount Marty University in South Dakota, an NCAA Division I school where he will look to continue his football career at the next level.

In addition to wearing a new jersey, Ortiz will also be trying out a new position, as he’ll move from running back to tight end for the upcoming season. Ortiz said that while he has only really ever played running back, he thinks tight end is a position that will suit him well.

“I do think I have a lot of natural athleticism and potential that’ll give me an edge,” Ortiz said. “They gave me the choice of running back and tight end, and I talked it over with my family. I’m 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and I’m only 17 years old. I’m not getting smaller. I realize I’m probably going to just get bigger, so tight end has the most potential. I think I will be able to adjust to that.”

The Mount Marty Lancers are trying to assemble a team for their first year of play in the NAIA, meaning Ortiz will be a member for the inaugural season, all because they reached out to him first. While Ortiz was originally thinking about going to Edinboro, Mount Marty came in with the best offer he received, and the speed at which he received it was impressive to Ortiz.

“They messaged me on Twitter and gave me a really good offer later that day,” Ortiz said. “It’s almost a full ride. I was thinking about Edinboro, but lots of things changed with the NCAA granting another year of eligibility due to the pandemic.”

Ortiz said that most of his other offers came from DII or DIII schools, but he felt like he could succeed at the highest level. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz was forced to make a lot of sacrifices for the spring football season. He thinks he would have had more offers had there been a normal, complete season. On top of that, because the timing of the season was so strange, Ortiz was asked to do a lot of things he was not normally asked to do.

“This season, Coach (Mike) Sarratori threw a lot at me,” Ortiz said. “We lost a lot of players because of baseball and had to adjust to a lot of positions. I played running back, I played quarterback, I was the kicker. It prepared me for playing a lot of different positions.”

Sarratori said that moving Ortiz all around the field shows how much confidence he had in his star player, and that willingness to move around the field is also part of the reason Mount Marty was so drawn to Ortiz.

“That just shows the confidence I have in him, and his ability and willingness to learn different things,” Sarratori said. “This year was very challenging, and he was the total team player. He knew that with the wins not coming this year, it would hurt his chances of playing at the next level, but he was willing to play quarterback even though he isn’t one. That’s one of the characteristics that attracted him to Mount Marty. They loved his attitude in that he was willing to sacrifice his own chances for the betterment of the team.”

Ortiz has always taken a lot of inspiration from his brother, Gilberto Ortiz II, who previously played football at Edinboro, but now plays at Chowan University in North Carolina. The biggest factor Ortiz was hinging on was how far away from home Mount Marty was, but his brother inevitably helped him make that choice.

“The deciding factor was how far it was from home,” Ortiz said. “That was the only thing. I talked to my brother a lot, and he moved to North Carolina to go play football. That’s like 12 hours away, I’m going 15. He understands. He told me that wherever I went, I wasn’t going to be home every day anyway. If I’m going to take that chance, it doesn’t hurt to explore a little bit. I think I’ll adjust to it well.”

Ortiz has already taken a trip to the school he will attend in the fall and was impressed with both the state of the football facilities and the rest of the campus as well. But at the end of the day, he’s excited to get on the field for his freshman year and learn the entirely new position he has been tasked with playing.

“I know I won’t be a very successful TE at my weight right now, so getting bigger will be fun,” Ortiz said. “I can run routes and catch the ball, so I’ll be able to do that now too. I genuinely enjoy that. I’ve blocked plenty of times in little league, but that’ll have to get better. Football as a whole, I’ll get to be on the field. I get to play freshman year. I haven’t really played a position other than running back, but I think I’m smart enough to adjust to it. I guess we’ll see when the season starts.”

While Ortiz looks to continue his football career at the DI level, how much he succeeds is entirely in his hands as he leaves the Marauder Maroon for the Lancer Yellow

“I think that’s all in Christian’s hands,” Sarratori said. “He’s a very intelligent kid, he’s got the size, speed and the desire. His ceiling is unlimited.”