Attempting to overcome gambling scandal
Hunter Dekkers has a successful past in football, but that’s nothing compared to his challenging future. Only two seasons ago, he was Iowa State’s quarterback and looked to be one of their most promising superstars. But in the summer of 2023, he became embroiled as the central figure in a sports betting investigation. His sports betting began in 2021 as what he called “kids being kids,” but then it threatened to upend his entire career.
he and other Iowa State athletes faced charges in the state’s sports gambling investigation
Dekkers displayed an impressive performance in 2021 and 2022, but any thoughts about glory with Iowa State were dashed on August 1, 2023, when he and other Iowa State athletes faced charges in the state’s sports gambling investigation. His guilty plea came just over a month later. Dekkers admitted to records tampering by using his mother’s name to wager more than $2,700 on more than 250 bets, including a bet on his own team.
NCAA deemed Dekkers ineligible to play
Dekkers’ football future was in doubt, and though he was then removed from the Iowa State team, he kept training on his own to take advantage of any future opportunities. His bad decision looked to cost him everything, but he held out hope that he could turn it all around.
Speaking to the Des Moines Register, Dekkers said: “I told myself I know that I am talented enough and good enough to get an opportunity somewhere. Wherever that is, whatever opportunity that was, I was going to take it.”
The opportunity to turn it all around was cut short when the former Iowa State quarterback’s appeal with the NCAA was denied. He’d hoped they would show him leniency, but instead he was deemed ineligible to play, and his chances of ever seeing the field for a Division I program were now zero.
But Scott Strohmeier, the head football coach for back-to-back junior college national champion Iowa Western, believed in second chances. Indeed, he’d built his team’s success on those kinds of comeback opportunities. And so Strohmeier said: “I felt [Dekker] deserved another opportunity to play.”
Iowa Western give Dekkers second chance
Strohmeier talked to the school president about whether Dekkers deserved a second chance, who in turn discussed it with the school’s board of directors. The board approved bringing Dekkers onto the team, making him their starting quarterback.
The Reivers are 1-0 on the young season, squeaking out a 42-41 overtime win against Georgia Military College this past weekend. Dekkers had a solid game, completing 20 of 30 passes for 296, with one touchdown (a 70-yarder) and one interception. He also score one touchdown with his legs, one of five rushing touchdowns for the Reivers on the day.
he has just one year to show everyone what he’s capable of
Dekkers still has a ways to go to take advantage of this second chance, lest it fly away faster than a missed pass. He has just one year to show everyone what he’s capable of, after which he hopes to enter next year’s NFL Draft.