Tony DeRiggi is going from one extreme to the other.

Seneca Valley's senior middle linebacker played for a Raider football team that won only two games last year.

He's heading to a Mount Union College program that has lost only one regular season game in the past 12 years.

"The No. 1 reason I'm going there is for the education," DeRiggi said. "But the tradition there is unbelievable.

"Once I met the coaching staff, it didn't take me long to realize how little I know and how much they know."

Mount Union, located in Alliance, Ohio, had its three-year run as NCAA Division III champion ended by last year's 24-6 national title game loss to St. John's (Minn.). But the Purple Raiders have won 94 consecutive regular season games, 85 consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference games and 12 consecutive OAC championships.

Mount Union has won 109 of its last 111 games overall. Larry Kehres is 205-18-3 in 18 years as the program's head coach.

"Tony's a big kid and we see him as a run-stopper at middle linebacker," Mount Union defensive coordinator Don Montgomery said. "He's a great athlete with a great work ethic.

"We think he has the patience and the persistence necessary to succeed in our program."

Hank Loutzenhiser, a former Seneca Valley defensive back, will be a sophomore at Mount Union next year and is a strong safety.

"Hank told us about Tony's work habits and we followed up on it," Montgomery said.

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound DeRiggi had approximately 65 tackles and three quarterback sacks for Seneca Valley last year. He was a three-year starter and two-time all-section linebacker.

DeRiggi moved to defensive end during the 2003 season.

"We didn't have a lot of size last year and the coaches asked me to switch," DeRiggi said. "I was pretty much set at Mount Union and I wanted to help the team. I had no problem with it."

DeRiggi had considered Kent State, Slippery Rock, Indiana (Pa.) and Edinboro early last fall, but once he visited Mount Union, he said he knew where he wanted to go.

"I wasn't going to get a full scholarship from anybody," he said. "I want to major in elementary education and Mount Union has an excellent program for that.

"I'm happy football has taken me as far as it has. As soon as I saw the campus, watched a game, met the coaches and players, I fell in love with that place.

"Their No. 1 priority isn't football. It's making a good man out of each player and that's what my family and I care about most," DeRiggi added.

DeRiggi hasn't been told whether he will be red-shirted his first year, but Mount Union returns a Division III All-American linebacker in senior Shaun Spisak.

Spisak led the Purple Raiders with 123 hits last year. Returning outside linebacker Anthony Frate led the team with 17 tackles for loss in 2003.

"We haven't had many three-year starters here, but we've had a few," Montgomery said. "Most of our quality younger players get on the field as special teams or back-up players.

"We graduate 40 seniors this year. We'll graduate another 28 next year. With turnover like that comes opportunity. We'll see who takes advantage of it.

"In our defense, the middle linebacker is usually our leading tackler," Montgomery added.

Mount Union plays a 43 defense that's very similar to Seneca Valley's schemes.

"I'm hoping it doesn't take me long to pick things up because of that similarity," DeRiggi said.

DeRiggi said he's looking forward to being on the same team as Spisak for a year.

"I want to see what I need to do to get to the level of player he is," DeRiggi said. "My goal is to become a Division III All-American linebacker at Mount Union.

"I want to become the next Shaun Spisak there. I want to take over for him and learn from him. I can't wait to get started."