Conneaut's Rice to continue school, football at Lake Erie
May 11—Conneaut's all-time leading rusher in football will continue his academic and athletic career at Lake Erie College in Painesville.
Zack Rice signed his letter of intent recently at Conneaut High School to play this fall for the Storm, an NCAA Division II program.
"I went on a visit there earlier in the year and honestly, I really liked it out of all the other options I had, and I really liked the coach," Rice said.
Rice said he visited four other schools before making his decision and visited Lake Erie in January. Rice is undecided on what he wants to study in college.
On the football field, he is expected to line up at running back and as a receiver for the Storm.
"I also really enjoy playing wide receiver and catching the ball. I think I'm really good at it," Rice said. "So having that other aspect makes me happy that I'm going there for that too."
Last fall, Rice helped lead Conneaut to an 8-3 record and to host a playoff game, the school's first postseason appearance since 1985.
For his career, Rice ran for 3,403 rushing yards, 43 rushing TDs, had 62 receptions, 973 receiving yards, 13 receiving touchdowns, 253 return yards and and 56 total touchdowns. He finished as the Spartans all-time leader with 4,629 all-purpose yards and is the school's career leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.
"It feels great, it makes me feel like I did something great for the school and city itself," Rice said.
He was named as the Ashtabula County Offensive Player of the Year in 2022, as voted on by the coaches, and Northeast Lakes All-District Division V first-team offense and All-Ohio second-team offense in Division V both in 2021 and 2022.
Rice, a four-year letterman in football, is a three-sport athlete who also played basketball and baseball, including suiting up for the Ohio Bruisers Baseball American Legion Cowle Post 151 travel ball team.
He was selected a first-team all-county player in baseball in 2022, and an honorable mention selection for basketball in 2023.
Playing baseball after high school had always been something Rice thought about and it had been in the back of his mind, so he needed to make a choice on what sport to pursue in college.
"Honestly, when I was coming to decide on what I was going to do, it was going to be football and then I was really thinking about playing baseball," Rice said. "But then I'm like I think I would do better in football and do better in college, so I picked football."
Rice, who suffered a knee injury that ended his basketball season early and delayed his start to play baseball this spring for Conneaut, said the injury didn't damper his recruiting and he's fully healed now.
"I visited all the colleges before the injury happened, so it didn't affect a lot in the process," he said.
Rice is planning to play travel baseball this summer and will begin summer football workouts with the Storm in late July or early August.
Rice said it is a relief to have finally decided on his college plans, and he thanked his family and friends for supporting him through the recruiting and decision-making process.
"Making the decision was very stressful and now that I have decided it's a lot of stress off my shoulders," Rice said.
