WOODSTOCK – Steve Drain, the owner of TNT Athletics in McHenry, shared a good laugh Wednesday with Lisa Dalton in Marian Central’s Landers Pavilion.

“You ever wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t come in that day?” Drain said.

Lisa Dalton was going to work out at TNT and taking her 11-year-old son Luke with her, but he was shy and refused to leave the car. She asked Drain to bring him in. Drain said he literally dragged him into the facility.

And the rest is history.

Once the tall kid, then a basketball player, was inside TNT, he loved working out. Through the years, he became one of Drain’s prized athletes, one who others aspire to be like.

On Wednesday, Dalton signed his National Letter of Intent with Cincinnati, which will meet Alabama in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve for a chance to play in the College Footall Playoff championship game Jan. 10.

Wednesday through Friday is the early signing period for football. Feb. 2 marks the regular signing period.

Dalton (6-foot-5, 300) was an Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Class 4A All-State selection. He is the only McHenry County area player to sign with a D-I or D-II school Wednesday.

Dalton switched to football in high school, started for the Hurricanes on the offensive line for three seasons and now is headed to one of the nation’s top NCAA Division I programs.

“It’s a phenomenal day, it’s an accomplishment,” said Dalton, who was joined by family and friends as he signed his letter that was then faxed to Cincinnati. “I’m early enrolling (at Cincinnati), so it’s kind of the last thing to kick it in gear and get ready to work.

“It’s awesome to see the momentum they’ve had and see the kind of team I’m going to. That locker room is unlike any other locker room in the country, and I feel like I’m going to fit in really well with that culture of work. I’m ready to go.”

Chris and Lisa Dalton will attend the Cotton Bowl game, but their son wanted to stay with his friends for one more weekend before leaving for college. He will enroll at Cincinnati in early January. If the Bearcats (13-0) can knock off No. 1 Alabama (12-1), Dalton will travel with the team and be on the sideline for the national championship game.

“Because he’s starting early, he said, ‘I only have a few more days with my friends. Would you mind if I just soaked up the last remaining days of my high school and being here in Crystal Lake?’ " Chris Dalton said. “We said, ‘It’ll be tough, but we’ll figure out a way to get by without you.’ If we can win on the 31st, then he will go to the national championship.

“I’m just overwhelmed with joy. We get to watch him grow as a man and grow in his skills as a football player, it has been fantastic. To do it here at Marian, and now to go on to a program like Cincinnati, you couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Marian coach Darren Fortin remembers the big kid who came in as a freshman and had to learn everything about a new sport. But by his sophomore year, Dalton started on varsity. Through training with Drain and working with coach Kevin Sabo of FIST Football in Carol Stream on line play, Dalton caught up quickly.

“It’s all his hard work paying off,” Fortin said. “The kid’s worked hard from his freshman year when he didn’t know which side of the ball offense and defense was, to where he’s at now.

“There’s a lot of people here who contributed to it. You see strength and conditioning, he had a couple O-line coaches that helped him out, the support of the school, and the outside forces like his family and his friends. He’s a totally different player than the day he walked in here.”

Dalton built a strong bond with Bearcats coach Luke Fickell, whose name was mentioned when jobs opened up last month at Notre Dame and other large schools.

“Coach Fick and I have a real personal relationship,” Dalton said. “I called him right away and said, ‘Coach, is this a concern?’ And he right off assured me he’s not going anywhere, he wants to stay there. We kind of always knew that if Notre Dame or Ohio State came up he would look into it. But he’s a Bearcat.

“All the staff has that same mindset. A lot of our position coaches got offered jobs and they didn’t leave. It’s a really bought-in mentality.”

Dalton frequently texts with the other Cincinnati offensive line signees, Jonathan Harder and Ethan Green, both Ohioans. The three of them are part of what is considered the Bearcats’ best recruiting class.

The Bearcats finished No. 8 in The Associated Press Top 25 for the 2020 season. Dalton held faith that if they remained unbeaten this fall, they would get into the four-team playoff field.

“It was more of a relief,” he said. “We showed the college football world that we were talented enough. You go to Notre Dame and to Indiana and you finish your (Athletic American Conference), there’s no reason you can’t be in the college football playoffs.

“The biggest test is how you do with Alabama. That defines your legacy and what the future’s going to be. It’s a very big game, but my Bearcats are going to take care of the job.”