Hartwell has high hopes

Spencer Patterson

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 10:14 a.m.

As Edgerton Hartwell walked past the horde of NFL scouts on hand to watch the first practice at January's East-West Shrine Game, he saw dozens of sets of eyes glance at his Western Illinois helmet and then glance away.

"When I showed up for the bowl games, they didn't recognize the helmet," Hartwell recalled. "They kind of shrugged me off."

As if playing for his NFL future wasn't motivation enough, the 6-2, 245-pound inside linebacker now had all the extra incentive he needed. Hartwell proceeded to dominate the practice sessions, earning high praise from the likes of ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.

"I took it as I wasn't only playing for myself," Hartwell said. "I was representing Western Illinois University and all of Division I-AA.

"Before the bowl games, I think a lot of people questioned whether I could play with the big-school names. Going to the bowl games and dominating the practices and coming out with 16 or 17 tackles showed them I could compete."

This weekend, the 1996 Cheyenne High School graduate will find out exactly how much that postseason performance improved his stock. Most project him as a late second or early third-round selection in a draft that begins Saturday morning and concludes Sunday.

But Hartwell, for one, isn't concerned with his exact position in the pecking order or the team that selects him. He's just thrilled to be on the verge of realizing a dream he has had since his Pop Warner days as a Las Vegas youth.

"I'm trying not to get too worked up about it, just to let it happen," Hartwell said. "Anywhere I go is like a dream come true. Ever since I can remember, my dream has always been to play in the NFL."

The reaction of those pro scouts at the East-West Shrine Game was hardly different from Hartwell's own thoughts on Division I-AA football just three years ago, when he transferred from Wisconsin to Western Illinois.

The Southern Zone Defensive Player of the Year as a high school senior in 1995, Hartwell had jumped at the chance to play for the Big Ten's Badgers. But after redshirting his first year and playing primarily on special teams the second, Hartwell had minor surgery to repair a hernia and things were never the same for him in Madison.

"After the hernia procedure, everything was different," Hartwell said. "There was a little distance after that. They treated me different. So I decided I wanted to start all over."

Hartwell chose to start fresh at Western Illinois, but he thought doing so also meant kissing his pro football dreams goodbye.

"I thought most of the guys that played in the NFL came from big schools, so I thought I would play three years at a new school, graduate and become a teacher," said Hartwell, who will graduate next month with a degree in special education.

Soon after arriving on campus, however, Hartwell learned the quality of football in the Gateway Conference was not so far off from what he had experienced at Wisconsin.

"A lot of people think of I-AA as a smaller division. They don't realize there are some great players in I-AA," he said. "We had some great players on our team and in our league, a lot of players who could definitely have played in those (all-star) bowl games and dominated."

Hartwell immediately earned a starting job and began to rack up accolades, finishing second on the team with 156 tackles and receiving all-Gateway second team and all-Gateway newcomer team honors.

The next season he continued to make a name for himself, compiling 165 tackles (95 ahead of his nearest teammate) and garnering first-team all-American selections by five Division I-AA associations. Most significantly, he was named the 1999 Gateway Conference Defensive Player of the Year, putting him on the radar of many NFL scouts.

Hartwell continued his improvement as a senior last fall, making 191 tackles to run his three-year total to a whopping 512 takedowns -- a record for a Western Illinois program that has produced the likes of NFL players Bryan Cox and Rodney Harrison. At season's end he received the conference's Defensive Player of the Year award for the second year in a row and then took home the ultimate honor -- the Buck Buchanan Award as the top player in all of Division I-AA.

"Winning that award was definitely a goal, but I put team goals first because those should be first," Hartwell said. "I felt if I worked toward my team goals and worked hard, the individual goals would be there in the end."

Hartwell's stellar college career, combined with his strong showings at both the Shrine Game and December's Blue-Gray Game, have helped him move steadily up the draft board in recent months. Pro Football Weekly has him ranked 66th overall among prospects, while Scripps Howard recently projected him as the fifth overall linebacker (inside or outside) in the draft.

After initially considering watching the draft alone back in Macomb, Ill., Hartwell decided to return home to Las Vegas for the event, back where his football career started. He'll spend Saturday with family and friends, who will help keep the atmosphere light while he awaits the phone call that will change his life.

"Being human, you're going to wonder where you'll end up, but I try to stay away from it. I don't get on the Internet and look at this stuff," Hartwell said. "No matter where I'm go, I'm going to be happy. All I've ever wanted was a shot to play in the NFL and show what I can do."