Wilsonville's Mark Wiepert shifted from OSU baseball commit to Oregon football commit at the end of his senior football season. (Staff Photos: Miles Vance)

Wilsonville’s Mark Wiepert made a lot of big moves during his senior year.

On the football field, he carried the Wildcats to a Class 5A state championship and won just about every award the state had to offer.

On the baseball diamond, he broke records left and right and led Wilsonville to 29 straight wins and a spot in the state semifinals.

But it’s a move he made between seasons that might go down as the biggest play of the year. That was the day – it was Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 – when Wiepert switched his college commitment from baseball at Oregon State to football at Oregon.

The decision to play football at Oregon capped Wiepert’s senior grid campaign – his first as a varsity starter at quarterback – and set the table for the next step in his athletic career.

“I’d always enjoyed football and had fun with it, so my senior year, I decided to give it a shot,” Wiepert said. “I had never really pursued recruiting (for football) – I’d always just said, ‘Sorry. I’m playing baseball.’”

But Wiepert’s stellar senior football season changed everything. During the Wildcats’ march to the 5A title, Wiepert threw for 3,811 yards and 51 touchdowns on 60% passing with just nine interceptions, and led Wilsonville in rushing with 704 yards and another 12 TDs.

He then put an exclamation point on his incredible football career – the 5A Offensive Player of the Year in 2024 had previously been named Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 – by leading Wilsonville past Mountain View in the 5A championship for the second straight year, this time in a 56-35 rout.

Wiepert ran wild in the finale, completing 17 of 26 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, and rushing 18 times for 169 yards and five more touchdowns to set a new 11-man record for TDs in a state title game.

He also led his team in tackles with six solo stops, returned a kickoff 37 yards to set up a third-quarter touchdown and did it all in less than three quarters.

Wilsonville coach Adam Guenther said he knew all along that Wiepert was capable of dominating at quarterback.

“He’s just a freak athlete. God blessed him with a lot of athletic ability, and through his work ethic and sacrifice, he took it to the next level, and that’s why he’s where he’s at,” Guenther said. “He does things on the football field that you don’t see normal kids doing very often, from throwing to catching, to running to tackling.”

For his part, Wiepert worked his way through the recruiting process and – five days after Wilsonville’s championship victory – decided to sign with the Ducks.
“I just realized that football is what brought me the most joy and what I enjoyed doing the most,” Wiepert said of his commitment to Oregon. “So I prayed about it a lot and I really felt like it was the right decision for me.”

While Wiepert says he’s satisfied with the move from OSU baseball to U of O football, none of it was easy.

“It was a hard decision and a decision that was not taken lightly,” Wiepert said. “The hardest part about any of it was calling the Oregon State coaches at the end of my decision-making process. … But I’ll forever be indebted and grateful to the men in that program. They are completely first class and have supported me through it all. Pretty much every single one of them said ‘It will be hard to ever root for the Ducks, but we’ll always be Mark Wiepert fans.’”