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Bryant Rude, a 2006 Onalaska High School graduate, has been a collegiate baseball vagabond of sorts over the last two years. He began his collegiate career at Upper Iowa, but pitched for Western Wisconsin Technical College as a freshman. He pitched at Madison Area Technical College this spring.

His next stop? UW-La Crosse, where Rude will join a roster that already includes recent OHS graduates Luke Zurbriggen, Joey Casper and Josh Weber. Rude picked UW-L over NC2A Division 2 St. Cloud State, among others.

“I had a lot of choices within the state,” Rude said of why he picked UW-L. “None of them made more sense to me than UW-L.”

Rude said UW-L and St. Cloud both made initial contact with him in May. When UW-Oshkosh and UW-Platteville entered the picture later, Rude had already narrowed his choices to his final two. Rude also received recruiting interest from NC2A Division 1 programs UW-Milwaukee and Chicago State, but attending and pitching at either of those two would have required Rude to wait another year, as his three-school journey over the last two years left him short of the required courses needed to transfer directly from MATC to a D1 program.

“It will be a lot easier for me at UW-L with all my family here,” Rude said. “Coach (Chris) Schwartz seems to expect different things and is big into work.

“I bought into that. That's what it's about at Madison, too, so that should make it a pretty smooth transition for me.”

While Rude was used primarily as a starter at Onalaska, he has been used in a wide variety of roles in college. He was 3-1 with a 4.43 ERA for MATC, including one complete game. But Rude also started just three of his eight appearances.

Rude is pitching this summer for Sparta Miller in the Mississippi Valley League. Sparta's roster also includes 2000 OHS grad Ben LaFleur.

“I've been told I'm going to have a chance to start,” Rude said of next year at UW-L. “But I tend to throw a lot of pitches. I'm more a strikeout guy than I am a guy that pitches to contact. Ben thought I'd be more of a reliever than a starter at a four-year college.

“That's especially true with the nine-inning games in the WIAC. If I can only go five or six innings and throw 100 pitches, I'm not helping as much as I'd like.

“Maybe I could even close. But I've been told I'll be in the mix to be one of our top four starters.”

Rude missed plenty of bats at MATC, allowing hitters to hit just .197 against him, while striking out 19 and allowing 15 hits in 20 1/3 innings pitched. But command was an issue with 18 walks and a team-high 10 wild pitches.

Rude also will be reunited with former Onalaska Legion head coach Sean Gavaghan. Gavaghan returned to UW-L as the pitching coach last spring after a hiatus. Current Onalaska Legion head coach Zeb Allert is not expected to stay on UW-L's staff this spring, Rude said.

“Sean made my decision more of a sure thing,” Rude said. “His style is similar to my Madison pitching coach, so I'll know what to expect.”

UW-L finished 19-20 last season. Rude is the son of Mike and Tina Rude of Onalaska.