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From beaumontenterprise.com BR> JASPER - In the end, when the time came for him to make a decision, it wasn't the phone calls or the parties or the promises that got to Sean Weatherspoon. He committed to play football at the University of Missouri because the sweatshirt made him do it. Sure, the kid had a lot on his mind - grades, part-time work at his church, football, basketball - and sure, he'd already settled on another school, one that was a lot closer to home. But Sean, a senior linebacker at Jasper High School, had just returned from an on-campus visit to Missouri, and now everything had changed. As December crept closer to January, and as the college bowl season zoomed into fourth gear, Sean's mind tumbled like an automatic dryer. Man, Houston's close to home ... I gave them my commitment ... But Missouri ... they're in the Big 12 ... they've got a brand-new business school ... I like the way they play defense . Then he strolled into a sporting-goods store and saw the sweatshirt. Sean stared out at the thing, and it stared back at him. It wasn't even in the right place, for crying out loud; someone had thrown it in with the jackets and pants. But there it was - jet black, hooded, soft and smooth. White letters. Gold trim. It spoke to him. It moved something within him. He had to have it. "Honestly, I didn't think I would end up at Missouri," he said, sporting a wide grin. "But I don't know. I went on my visit, and it just seemed like it was right. Then I saw the sweatshirt. That's when I knew I had to commit." In the semi-seedy environment where college coaches chase high school athletes with cell phones and sales pitches, "recruiting" and "normal" rarely appear on the same continent, much less the same sentence. As far as the major college football programs were concerned, Sean was no Ken Beasley, the West Orange-Stark standout who will sign a letter of intent Wednesday morning to play football at Texas. (Up in Jasper, Sean will also sign and send his letter of intent Wednesday morning, during what's known as National Signing Day. Dozens of others in Southeast Texas will do the same.) Beasley, with his flawless athletic ability, pulled gallons of drool from the mouths of college coaches. Beasley could run. Beasley could jump. Beasley had fly-paper hands, ankle-breaking moves and, when he moved to quarterback this season, proved he had an arm, too. Sean wasn't as flashy. He simply got on the field and made plays. Bulldogs coach Danny Lauve enjoys telling the tale of how he moved Sean up to the varsity team as a freshman and started him for a game at weakside linebacker. Sean never left the lineup. Years went by, and Weatherspoon defined himself as a core member of the team's leadership. He picked up on his opponents' smallest tendencies. He put uncanny instincts on display. He started playing wide receiver. By his junior season, Weatherspoon was in the middle of the huddle, barking out instructions, refusing to let the Bulldogs disappear into a mob of also-rans. He helped lead Jasper into the Class 3A Division II state finals, where the Bulldogs came within a 2-point conversion of winning. Senior year, not surprisingly, was his best - 97 total tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, two interceptions, 461 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. "He plays the game of football with a passion that can't be taught," Lauve said. "His teammates as well as the students at Jasper all look up to him." Problem was, only a few college programs were doing the same. He attended a summer football camps at Houston and LSU, but only the Cougars offered him a scholarship. He liked it there at first, got along with the assistant coaches who were courting him and, when the Weatherspoon family evacuated to Houston during Hurricane Rita, the Cougars' staff started applying some pressure. His parents, Elwanda and Develous, told him to decide for himself. His brother, Tay, had been through all this before; coming out of Jasper, he signed with Stephen F. Austin and started as a freshman in 1997. But Tay soon found himself in trouble: He stopped going to class, and soon he was out of football and out of plans. Though he now has a criminal-justice job and a family in Spring, he wants to be sure his little brother doesn't make the same mistakes. "When Sean was getting recruited, I told him not to worry about football," Tay said. "Everybody's going to show you the best part of their football program. Look at the academics. That's what's important." Sean committed to Houston. He figured that was it. He didn't even count on taking his official visits to other campuses (the NCAA allows five for each prospect). But Missouri kept on him. Matt Eberflus, the team's defensive coordinator, sent tons of text messages. Then he showed up in Jasper one day. He told Sean about the place, about the prestige of playing in the Big 12. He also told Sean about the Tigers' defensive schemes, about how they'll only have six linebackers on scholarship next year, and that if the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Weatherspoon beefed up in the offseason, he might be No. 2 on the depth chart. Eberflus even stopped at the auto-parts store where Develous works in Jasper. That made an impression on the father and the son. "If they came all the way down here," Sean said, "I figured they were pretty serious." So the Weatherspoons returned the favor, driving 15 hours to Columbia, Mo., for an on-campus visit in early December. Elwanda wasn't so sure about her baby being so far away from home, but she figured the university's new $4 million business school was a good place for Sean to be. Develous loved the place, even if the temperature plunged to the 20s that night. As for Sean, well, he liked the feel of the place. He liked the party he went to with some of the football players. He enjoyed the basketball game he watched. Now he had a decision to make. On the way back home, Sean was talking to a friend on his cell phone when he started listing all the Texas-born players on the Missouri roster. They've got one from San Antonio, one from Houston, Denton, Southlake ... "And now they've got one from Jasper," Develous chimed in. Sean hated telling the Houston coaches no. But he was watching Kansas hammer the Cougars in the Fort Worth Bowl, and he'd made up his mind on one thing. Houston was off. When UH heard about his plans to visit Missouri, its coaches started slamming the Tigers' program to him. That turned Sean off. During the bowl game, he sent UH assistant coach Randy Clements a text message. It was over, he said, just like that. When his dad heard the news, he was so excited he called Eberflus himself. He committed on Sean's behalf. Later, on the day Sean Weatherspoon went shopping and spoke to a sweatshirt, he ran into the same guy he's been chasing on the football field for years. Beasley, the No. 3-rated cornerback prospect in the country, saw Weatherspoon outside a clothing store and shook his hand. As the two competitors showed mutual respect for each other, Beasley asked if Weatherspoon had made a decision about college. "Missouri," Sean said. "Big 12, baby." Beasley's face lit up. "Still trying to chase me down, huh?"