also on board. Padilla and Montgomery each made last-minute recruiting pitches to Siereveld on social media to join them at Ohio State, although Siereveld didn’t tip either off what his college decision would be until Wednesday. No one close to Siereveld was too surprised he decided to stay home, though.
Although OSU held a special place in his heart throughout his life, Siereveld approached his recruitment with an open mind. Although he was tempted to jump on the Ohio State offer immediately when it came on Oct. 30, Siereveld continued to give serious consideration to other schools. He continued to take other visits to other schools that piqued his interest all the way through the end of April, until he finally decided he was ready to become a Buckeye.
“I wasn't surprised, because really, just takes one school to offer him and then they all just jump on the bandwagon,” Haynes said. “I knew from the time he came on campus, he was going to be special. And so this is just a culmination of a lot of hard work from Austin.” “It was validating how much I worked and my effort,” Siereveld said. “It was very cool, not a lot of people can do it.”