'Best route' found

Quarterback Jordan Roberts, who rewrote the state record books at Aurora Christian, will play his college football at Wheaton College.
(Craig Watson / For the Beacon News)

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Sprawled out on the living room couch in his parents' Yorkville home, Jordan Roberts rewound and fast forwarded parts of a recorded basketball game, quietly working the remote control, studying how a move was made.

It was Aug. 1, 2008, just weeks before his senior season at Aurora Christian began. He had recently capped a summer full of phone calls, workouts, recruiting trips and showcase camps that took him across the country.

The process was akin to a job hunt, and Roberts was experiencing the same frustrations many in the commercial marketplace were feeling.

He knowingly was about to become the most accomplished quarterback to ever wear a high school uniform in Illinois history, yet he sat there that warm, sunny Friday afternoon not knowing where he would be playing in August, 2009.

Yet he never outwardly showed any extreme disappointment in the process or doubted himself.

"It can be a downfall (of a person) you could say, making them think negative," Roberts said at the time. "But everything is under control. This is all happening for a reason."

Since the day he crouched under center as a freshman, Roberts' high school career has been under a microscope. His parents, Doug and Michelle, tried their best to manage it -- both for his benefit and for his sanity -- yet it was a nearly three-year journey wrought with constant speculation and expectation.

A deeply religious family, the Robertses tried to control what they could -- sending out DVDs, making the necessary calls and trips -- but in the end left it up to a higher power.

On that August afternoon, Michelle glanced a look over to Jordan, who was content in his silence, zipping through a basketball game.

"Whatever God has in store for you, it's fine," Michelle Roberts said. "And if it's not (Division I), that'll be fine too. But if He's taking you down this road and this is where you are, then why not see what He's got for you and see what the best route is and prepare for it and hope for the best no matter what?"

Following a history-making senior season in which he left his name atop 12 different IHSA passing categories and as part of the only Aurora football team to ever reach a state title game, no one would have expected that Roberts' "best route" would come on a cold day in January.

But one could say it was what he had been preparing for all along.

On the morning of Jan. 20, Roberts was mulling walk-on offers from Eastern Illinois and Western Michigan along with firm offers from Butler University and Benedictine College in Kansas. None seemed right, yet nothing more attractive seemed to be on its way.

That afternoon, Wheaton College offensive coordinator Tim Hardy visited Aurora Christian, and sat with Roberts for about an hour. Doug Roberts, who has been with his son through every step of the recruiting process, watched intently.

"I just sat back off to the side and listened to Jordan talk more than I've ever seen him talk to a coach," Doug said. "Right away there was this thing that was clicking with Jordan."

An overnight visit to the Wheaton campus was scheduled for Jan. 25-26.

On Jan. 27, Roberts was on the phone with Thunder head coach Mike Swider to tell him he decided to join the Thunder.

The decision lifted a weight off Roberts, as he finally had an answer for friends, classmates and media alike when they asked how his college search was going.

"Notre Dame was at a practice his sophomore year, so automatically that starts to put a lot of pressure on a kid," Eagles coach Don Beebe said. "It was a weight off his shoulders because of the weight put by everybody else. I don't think Jordan put a lot of pressure on himself at all. He's handled this whole thing tremendously, tremendously well."

Roberts felt Wheaton College was the right fit from the moment he stepped foot on campus, as the conservative Christian environment and its football program were similar to what he experienced at ACS.

"It was a great time with awesome people," Roberts said. "They're a Christian school. That had a lot to do with it. And they have a guy returning who's going to be a senior, but the year after that it's up for grabs, it's going to be a competition. Which obviously I've never had that before, so it's going to be an experience. But I'm looking forward to it. It'll be good."