You may have seen Dalton Groskreutz dominate the court last year in basketball, but this all-round athlete is now taking over as one of the top receivers for Dixie State University football.
This 6-foot-6 senior communication major from Santa Clara is now running along the Storm’s offense as a wide receiver after completing his four years of eligibility for Dixie basketball.
As an athlete in a Division II school, you have 10 semesters to be eligible to play a sport while in college.
Groskreutz has already cashed in eight semesters for basketball. Because Groskreutz didn’t take a redshirt year and didn’t have to take time off for an injury, he still has two semesters of eligibility. Groskreutz plans to use at least one of his remaining two in Sark Arslanian Field as football player.
“I had one more semester of schooling left, and I had been talking to coach Thompson (offensive coordinator) and it just kind of made sense [to play],” Groskreutz said. “I was going to be at school and I had eligibility left … not to mention that I like playing football.”
Media Relation Assistant John Potter said Groskreutz will probably only stay around for the 2014 season.
“More than likely he will finish up and only play one year,” Potter said. “[NCAA] won’t allow most people to play consecutive seasons of a another sport after you have played four of another.”
Groskreutz said he is not sure why there is a bunch of hype about him crossing from the court to the field, but he speculates it is because of how well former basketball crossover Mitch Frei did on the field.
Frei, a former wide receiver for Dixie, had a similar situation with eligibility and decided to bring his talents to football. With the two years Frei played football, he had a total of 1,426 receiving yards, 16 touchdowns and is ranked No. 2 for average yards gained for DSU.
So far Groskreutz has accounted for a total of 68 yards and two touchdowns in the last three games.