After a convincing win over Quincy Notre Dame last Friday evening, Sam Mattecheck made the drive west to Iowa City for an unofficial visit on Saturday afternoon.

The 6-foot and 170 pound defensive back prospect from Rock Island Alleman High School also serves as the Pioneers quarterback. Against Quincy Notre Dame, the usually ground oriented Pioneers went to the air with Mattecheck throwing for 236 yards and 5 touchdowns in the 41-21 victory.

“We are off to a good start so far this year and we’ve thrown it a bit more to start the year,” Mattecheck said. “I think throwing it more has really opened things up for his offensively and now we just need to keep it up this Friday.”

While Mattecheck is focused on having a strong senior year, he also has an eye to the future. He’s an excellent student with test scores that open doors to high academic institutions where he could continue to play football. He is currently being recruited to play quarterback or defensive back at schools like Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis, and Rose Hulman in Indiana. Columbia from the Ivy League is also beginning to show interest.

He’s also interested in potentially walking on and playing football at the University of Iowa, where he visited last weekend. Mattecheck had camped with the Hawkeyes in June, working at defensive back, and during the camp he was able to connect with Iowa assistant coach Reese Morgan, who recruits the Quad City area.

“I really enjoyed the visit to Iowa,” he said. “It was a great experience to meet a lot of the coaches and the people around the program were great. They took us on a tour of the facilities before the game and then we were able to be down on the field before the game.”

He said that Coach Morgan told him he would continue to monitor his play this season and see how things go. Mattecheck said that if the opportunity to walk on at Iowa did eventually come, it would mean a lot to follow in the footsteps of other Quad City players who have joined the program and excelled at defensive back, like Brett Greenwood and Jake Gervase.

“I look up to those guys and I've seen what they have done in the Iowa program. They have a great history with walk-on’s and developing them as players.”