Wisconsin offensive lineman David Moorman.
When David Moorman was in middle school at Northville Christian School, he was too big for the Northville football league, so he had to find something else to do.
Soccer had no weight limit, so he took his 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame and embraced it.
Placed at center-defense, he was a massive obstacle in the back end and mobile enough to force a few problems.
“Every once in awhile I would accidentally go for the ball and knock someone over,” Moorman said this week. “I got a few yellow cards, nothing too bad. I think it actually helped me improve athletically.”
Now that Moorman is a major-college offensive lineman for Wisconsin who faces Michigan on Saturday at Michigan Stadium, things turned out pretty well.
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But his memory of the soccer days might be a little more sanitized than others recall.
“He got kicked out of many games at that point,” his father, Joe, said. “There’s no doubt about that. David was 6-4 in sixth grade. He was just so big.”
Even though Joe played football at Eastern Michigan in 1986-89, David didn’t jump at football or any sport immediately.
At 4 or 5 years old, Joe saw a beautiful day with the rest of the family gone and asked David to play basketball outside.
The response?
‘No, Dad, I’d rather stay in and play Batman theater.’
In second grade, that all changed when David attended his first Lions game. Something stirred within him and he was hooked.
As he grew physically, so did his interest in the game, given an inside look at big-time football through a family friendship with then-Lions quarterback Jon Kitna. That connection continued through the years, and Moorman grew comfortable on the line, becoming a Free Press Dream Teamer as a senior at Northville in the 2014 season.
But the University of Michigan, 20 minutes from his home, had some interest under coach Brady Hoke until that faded when Hoke was fired in December.
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Michigan State, where many family members attended, never offered him a scholarship.
While his parents would have appreciated the proximity, the decision has worked out well.
“At the time, Wisconsin offered me, and I fell in love with the culture and the people and couldn’t be happier with my decision,” said Moorman, now 6-5, 288.
Though he committed to the Badgers under previous coach Gary Andersen, it was a major boost when Paul Chryst got the coaching job, continuing the focus of the dominant offensive lines and running game.
The staff’s deliberate and encouraging coaching style suited Moorman perfectly.
On the field, he has taken a little time, but he’s still enthused.
His freshman year was delayed by a preseason broken foot, and he had a rude awakening during scout-team practices trying to handle outside linebackers Vince Biegel and Joe Schobert.
But that helped him mature, and now that he’s playing on special teams this season, getting into all four games so far, he can feel the difference.
He’s playing on the field goal and extra-point units and in the blowout win over Akron even got on the field as a reserve lineman.
Moorman understands the hierarchy and patience to get snaps. So, as the only state of Michigan player on the Badgers, he’s appreciating the chance to play in East Lansing (in last week’s 30-6 blowout) and Ann Arbor on consecutive weeks.
That meant hitting up his teammates for 14 MSU game tickets, helping his group of nearly 30 people who came to watch.
Joe was among them, appreciating their son back home.
“When he ran through that tunnel at Michigan State onto that field, Pam, his mom, and I, we looked at each other and we had kind of tears,” Joe said. “It’s pretty special. It’ll be the same this week at the Big House.”
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