'I Feel Fulfilled': Diamond Answers the Call to Serve

Secondary Contact: Alex Mielcarz, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, ajmielcarz@noctrl.edu

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Sept. 18, 2026) – In high school, Will Diamond wasn’t sure he was going to go to college. He didn’t think it was for him.

He liked football. Loved it, in fact. Because of that love (and his brother, who was also recruited to play collegiately), he gave college a chance.

The recruiting journey brought Diamond to North Central College, where he has become a regular contributor as a tight end on the Cardinal football team and has found his newest love: serving other people. 

This newfound passion pushed him to join the ROTC, attend Cadet Basic Training this summer at Fort Knox in Kentucky and eventually helped him be selected as his regiment’s winner of the Mission POW-MIA Award, a prestigious honor that is presented to the cadet who demonstrates character and courage through leadership, selflessness and fortitude in honor of all missing and unaccounted-for Americans from all past conflicts. 

Diamond, a three-year member of the Cardinal football program, became close to teammate Gabriel Gyorgy a few seasons ago after Gyorgy transferred into the program. Gyorgy, an ROTC member himself, introduced him to the ROTC program, a decision that would alter the trajectory of Diamond’s life.

“He told me about the ROTC process, and I was like, ‘Why have I not been doing this?’” Diamond said. “I’ve always had an interest in serving our country, but I didn’t know how to go about it or if that was in my playing cards.” 

He hasn’t looked back since joining.

“Playing football, serving Christ and serving other people makes me feel fulfilled,” Diamond said. “My faith in God and my growth and connection with Christ have allowed me to trust what desires he has put on my heart.” 

Diamond’s journey has been anything but shocking to his coach, Brad Spencer. 

“We tell the team that the true mark of love is putting the well-being of others ahead of your own,” Spencer said. “Will embodies that in every single way.”

Diamond, a Geneva native, entered the Cardinal football program as a linebacker but was asked to flip to the offensive side of the ball early on in his career.

“He had to, unselfishly, put aside any sort of aspirations and hopes of being an all-conference or All-American linebacker and totally shift to the tight end position,” Spencer said. “That unselfishness plays out in his life in every sort of way.”

Coach Spencer has seen Diamond develop as a football player and as a young man, following the three major covenants of the North Central football program along the way: Faith, Family and Academics. 

“He’s taking all the pieces of our program and applying them to his life at a really high level,” Spencer added.

Just hours into his stint at basic training, Diamond had the questions that would guide him not only through his four weeks of Cadet Basic Training, but through his life.

“I think those two questions really set my perspective on what my life is going to look like once I’m done with college,” Diamond said. “I thought about those questions a lot. They’re important to me.” 

From then on, Diamond did everything he could to answer those questions. He wanted to be trusted with leading the future sons and daughters of the United States. He wanted to focus on the way he treated people in his company and in his regiment. He wanted to put everything he had into the next four weeks.

Diamond was rewarded for his efforts, being recognized as the regiment’s recipient of the Mission POW-MIA Award for his courage and character, as reflected in his leadership, selflessness and fortitude throughout the duration of basic training. The recognition, bestowed upon Diamond in late July, carries added significance today, September 18, as the country observes National POW/MIA Recognition Day, held annually on the third Friday in September.

It wasn’t a shock to Coach Spencer that Diamond was the recipient of the award. Not only is Diamond’s character exceptional, but the Cardinal football program shares a strong bond with the POW-MIA community that dates back to World War II.

The memory of learning about the recognition is still quite vivid in Diamond’s mind. He and his fellow cadets were practicing for the drill and ceremony competition when he was pulled aside by a major – the same major who proposed those two impactful questions to Diamond in the early hours of his stay at Cadet Basic Training – and was told that he had been selected as the Mission POW-MIA Award honoree. 

Hours later, he was accepting the award in front of his regiment.

“When I was in that moment, just walking in front of everybody who was there on graduation day, I was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty cool,’” Diamond said, fighting back a smile. “I just wanted to make sure that in that moment I understood the weight of the award and treated the moment with respect.” 

His mother traveled from Geneva to Fort Knox to see her son accept the honor.

“I don’t really have words for it,” Diamond said of his mother’s attendance. “Being able to give her a hug after not seeing her for a month was such a fulfilling feeling.

“I feel like I made her proud.”