After dedicating himself to football the past two seasons, Cameron Stingily’s hard work paid off when he signed to continue his career at Northern Illinois University.

Many high school athletes would have taken the spring off to relax and prepare for college football.

Not Stingily.

After a two-year hiatus from track and field, he returned this season to throw the shot put and earned all conference honors.

His multi-sport success also earned him the Bugle’s Male Athlete of the Year award.

“It was coach Anthony Imbordino,” Stingily said. “He coached me in football and I came out for track because of him. But I had fun in track, I enjoyed it. I was happy that I could help the team and win and not just be another body.

Stingily reported to Northern Illinois University June 14 for summer conditioning.

“I love it up here,” he said. “I love football and love doing this. The coaches here told me to forget about what I learned in high school. They want to teach me their way.”

That will have to wait until the coaches can start to teach under NCAA rules.

“Right now, we can’t even talk to the coaches,” Stingily said. “My teammates are teaching me how coach wants it. We are doing 7-on-7 on our own.”

This season, Stingily notched 47 total tackles, an average of 5.2 tackles per game for the Spartans. His defensive numbers do not immediately reflect that of a Division-I caliber linebacker, but that was because, as a running back he carried the ball 147 times for 1,007 yards, an average of 6.85 yards per carry and 111.9 yard per game.

He was a Class 6A honorable mention all-state selection and a second-team all-state selection by the Chicago Tribune.

“We didn’t use him on defense as much this year,” Romeoville coach Jeff Kuna said. “He carried the ball so much and he was tired. Carrying the ball and the style of player he is, we had to spell him on defense, because we couldn’t take him out on offense because the whole offense was really built around him and his running attack.”

Stingily’s offensive success should translate to the defensive side of the ball.

“It will help him because he has a great understand of the offense,” Kuna said. “Not because he understands where the running back is going, but because he understands the blocking schemes and why guards pull and why the fullback goes the opposite way of the play action. He knows what is happening in the run game as he is trying to stop it.”

Over the past few years, NIU has become a successful program, playing in four bowl games since 2004 and sending several players to the National Football League. The success of the program, however, was not important to Stingley’s choice.

“It really didn’t matter to me,” he said. “Our high school team didn’t win, but we worked hard to get it to win. If I went to a school that won, I would play hard to keep it winning, but if I went to school that was losing, I would play hard to make it win.”

“Cameron has not even played his best football,” Kuna said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for him. He is going to do much more and become an even better player at the next level.”

Stingily hopes to start a trend of Spartans heading to top football colleges.

“That would be cool if two guys go D-I next year and four the year after,” he said. “I would like to be the guy that started that off.”