Seahawks select Canadian Luke Willson in fifth round of NFL draft, 158th overall | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Seahawks select Canadian Luke Willson in fifth round of NFL draft, 158th overall

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - Luke Willson's decision to concentrate on football paid off Saturday.

The Seattle Seahawks selected the Rice Owls tight end in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft, 158th overall.

The six-foot-four, 250-pound Willson, a native of La Salle, Ont., played first base for the Canadian national baseball team in 2008 and in 2011 was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays.

The left-handed hitter had 33 catches with Rice for a team-high 425 yards and three TDs in 2010.

He began the 2012 campaign on the Mackey Award watch list as one of the NCAA's top tight ends to watch but injuries limited him to nine catches for 126 yards and two TDs over six games.

However, Willson performed well during Rice's pro day, posting a 40-yard dash time of 4.46 seconds and a 38-inch vertical jump.

Last year, the defending Grey Cup-champion Toronto Argonauts selected Willson in the fifth round of the CFL draft.

Willson comes from an athletic family.

His father, Mike, played football at the University of Windsor as well as baseball while his older twin brothers Eric and Greg played football at the University of Western Ontario.

Luke Willson majored in philosophy and political science at Rice with a business minor.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2013
The Canadian Press

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