Former Highland quarterback Wuebbels ready to take his game to the college ranks

Brent Wuebbels has spent the past four years in charge of running the Highland offense as the the Bulldogs’ quarterback.

In just over two weeks, Wuebbels will continue his academic career and his football journey across the river in west St. Louis County at Missouri Baptist University.

Wuebbles signed with Missouri Baptist on May 4 and is glad to be moving onto college and have the grind of recruiting behind him.

“It was definitely a lot off the shoulders and I was able to get a lot of stress off your back because you’re always constantly trying to figure out what school you’re going to go to and most importantly which school is gonna give you the most money to go there for,” Wuebbels said. “There’s nothing better than to be able to walk out of college and be completely 100 percent debt free and student loan free.”

Missouri Baptist won out Wuebbels’ services over Culver Stockton College, McKendree University, Central Methodist College, and Mcherson College.

“When I went there I really liked the coaching staff there and met them,” Wuebbels said. “Coach (Jason) Burianek seemed like a really down-to-earth (person) and he seemed to really care about me and cared about more than just football but about my future and what that was going to hold in it too.

“Plus, it was a good distance from my house. It’s just under an hour, so it’s far enough away that you can get away from home but at the same time it’s not too bad of a drive to get home.”

Wuebbels turned in a superb senior season at Highland in 2022, leading the Bulldogs to a 9-2 campaign which included a Mississippi Valley Conference championship and a second-round appearance in the IHSA Class 6A playoffs.

As a skillful dual-threat quarterback at Highland, he passed for 1,950 yards and 34 touchdowns while also running for 753 yards with seven more touchdowns.

Coming in as a freshman at MBU, Wuebbels is first and foremost focused on building connections with his offensive teammates there.

“I feel like getting connections with guys and getting to know my teammates and getting to know their background and just building a connection with them that is kind of inseparable,” Wuebbels said. “That’s how you build such strong relationships with your running back and your wide receivers like I did in high school.

“When you’re working with them every single day and getting to know them, you start to get those bonds and friendships that can’t be broken n matter how hard you try.”

Wuebbels plans to major in mechanical engineering.

During the summer, he has been working out with teammates at Missouri Baptist four days a week in preparation of fall camp, which begins on Aug. 6.

“We have what we call Monster Mondays which are some pretty rough workouts and then conditioning to get us in shape. Then Tuesday and Friday are our speed and agility days and then Thursdays are our conditioning tests. So we’ll work out and then have our conditioning tests,” Wuebbels said.

Wuebbels said that Burianek has told him that the quarterback spot will be an open competition for the Spartans this fall, and Wuebbels is definitely excited to have a chance to compete for the job as a freshman this season.

“My biggest thing is I wanna be able to see the field as fast as possible and I know I have to work really hard and have to make sure I build those strong relationships, need to be in good shape and make sure I study the playbook and I understand that,” Wuebbels said. “Once you have the playbook down, its just playing football and having fun after that.”