By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
High school senior Heath Starkey may be getting ready to leave the nest at Colonel Crawford, but he’ll still be an eagle when he heads off to college.
The 6-feet-10-inch post player used the early signing period to pen his name to a national letter of intent on Thursday to accept an athletic scholarship to Ashland University.
Starkey was direct and to the point when explaining why he chose the NCAA Division II school that is a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“Good program, good coach,” Starkey said. “I felt like Coach (John) Ellenwood and I and his staff have a good relationship.”
The AU Eagles are coming off a 25-6 season in which they qualified for the NCAA Division II postseason for the first time under Ellenwood.
Starkey’s basketball career to this point is somewhat unique, as is the potential on-court path ahead of him after high school.
“Give the kid credit for perseverance,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “A lot of kids these days would have quit.”
Starkey’s time on the court in high school has been severely curtailed as a result of four knee surgeries. Heading into his senior year, he has yet to be a regular in the varsity lineup and spent all of his season as a junior playing with the JV squad.
Starkey called his medical problems “setbacks,” and said those were all behind him now.
“I think I’ve come back and nothing is going to stop me now,” Starkey said with conviction.
Because of his ongoing knee problems, Sheldon said the lanky post missed his entire sophomore season and they determined it was in the best interest of his development to get as much court time as possible as a junior. That meant playing for the junior varsity.
“He worked his tail off. He’s caught up with his size,” Sheldon said, adding that Ellenwood and AU assistants Brook Turson and Rob Gardiner had seen Starkey play quite a bit over the summer.
The Colonel Crawford coach said they described Starkey’s potential to him as, “He’s 6-10 and the sky is the limit. There’s a lot of promise. His best years are ahead of him.”
As a result, Starkey is seriously considering redshirting his freshman year at Ashland. He had been contacted by several Division III schools in Ohio and another Division II school offered him a full scholarship, but said he felt all along that Ashland was the best fit for him.
“If I do choose to redshirt my freshman year it will give me an extra year of basketball,” Starkey said.
Even so, he knows there is a lot of hard work ahead.
“I’m definitely going to have to get stronger,” Starkey said. “Hopefully keep my emotions in check. If I miss a shot or something I can’t get frustrated and let it affect my next trip down the court.”
Starkey plans to major in sports management and minor in business administration at Ashland. He was surrounded by parents Brad and Karen and his brother Hunter when he signed the letter of intent in the Colonel Crawford Media Center.
His mother Karen liked his choice of schools for another reason.
“Absolutely, that was big for us,” Karen said about the proximity of Ashland allowing the family to see him play while minimizing the length of road trips. “We’re very grateful for Ashland.”
Starkey will be the lone senior for the Colonel Crawford Eagles who return three junior letter winners and will also have four freshmen on the varsity roster. Even so the expectations are high for the Eagles this winter.
“I’m excited, but first of all I’m excited about this year,” Sheldon said, “and getting everything out of him.”