The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 17

Will Tschetter leads a simple life. 
He lives on his family farm in 

the rural outskirts of Stewartville, 
Minn., a community of roughly 
6,000 people. He doesn’t have social 
media. Basketball is his passion, 
but farm work comes first; he once 
instructed Juwan Howard to call 
him back so he could finish hauling 
the day’s load of rocks. 

Perhaps it’s fitting then that 

a mid-summer visit to an empty 
campus convinced Tschetter to 
commit to Michigan. 

“To be able to see the city of 

Ann Arbor and get the vibe of the 
campus in general was super cool,” 
Tschetter said. “It was weird, but 
also kind of like a normal visit.”

This past March, the COVID-19 

pandemic tilted the world of college 
basketball recruiting along its axis. 
The NCAA enacted a recruiting 
dead period on April 1, which 
has since been extended through 
December. In-person recruiting and 
official on-campus visits, the usual 
staples of a player’s recruitment, are 
forbidden. 

So Tschetter forged his own 

visit, making the nine-hour drive to 
Ann Arbor alongside his mom over 
Fourth of July weekend. Campus 
was barren, devoid of student life. 
They viewed buildings from the 
outside only. Howard and associate 
head coach Phil Martelli chimed in 
as de facto tour guides via FaceTime. 

Absent were the bells and 

whistles, like front-row seats at the 
Big House or a serenade at Crisler 
Center. But none of that mattered 
to Tschetter. He was sold, letting 
Howard know of his decision that 
Sunday night before announcing 
publicly the following day. 

Choosing 
Michigan 
marked 

the culmination of a whirlwind 

recruitment for Tschetter, one that 
saw him ascend from the depths 
of the unknown to the top of high-
major programs’ wishlists. 

Yet Tschetter’s rise comes as 

no surprise to those who have 
witnessed his talent firsthand. 

“You’d walk into an open gym 

and you’d watch him, all the tools, 
all the intangibles were there,” 
Brad Vaught, an assistant coach at 
Stewartville High School said. “I’ve 
coached DI power forwards and I 
felt like Will was a high-major kid.”

Vaught 
joined 
Stewartville’s 

staff last fall. At his prior gig — 
an assistant coaching position at 
Marshall High School in Rochester, 
Minn. — Vaught coached Matthew 
Hurt, a 6-foot-9 power forward 
who started 22 games last year as 
a freshman for Duke. Instantly, 
Vaught believed Hurt and Tschetter 
were comparable. 

The recruiting front, though, 

remained quiet. Tschetter held 
offers from South Dakota, Northern 
Iowa, Division II Augustana College 
and North Dakota State, his parents’ 
alma mater. Any high-major interest 
was muted. 

“I remember watching him play 

and thinking, ‘Hey, wait a minute, 
why doesn’t he have more offers?’ ” 
Vaught said. “That was my thought 
— Where is everybody?”

Last season, Tschetter shined. 

As a high school junior, he led 
the state of Minnesota in scoring, 
averaging 33.6 points per game to go 
along with 10.8 rebounds. Interest 
ticked up a bit — he added offers 
from Colorado State and Loyola-
Chicago — but not significantly. 
Programs were perhaps suspect of 
the competition level in Minnesota 
Class AA basketball and AAU 
tournaments that weren’t shoe-
sponsored. 

Tschetter 
and 
his 
parents 

compiled a highlight tape. Vaught 
surfed recruiting websites and 

contacted every Division I program 
whose information he could find, 
sending over the film via email. 
Willie Vang, Tschetter’s AAU coach 
on the Minnesota Heat, compiled all 
the information on a spreadsheet: 
who they contacted, who responded 
and who Tschetter had interest in. 

The proactive approach paid 

dividends. In April, Tschetter’s 
recruitment exploded. 

“Watching his skill on tape, go 

figure, schools started calling,” 
Adam Girtman, Tschetter’s head 
coach at Stewartville, said. “With 
the AAU season being shut down, 
schools started asking for tape 
and more tape. It just kind of 
snowballed.”

Offers poured in from mid-

majors throughout April. On May 
27, Arkansas became the first 
power-five program to extend an 
offer. Three Big Ten schools — 
Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota 

— did the same on June 1. Virginia 
Tech, Iowa and Cincinnati followed 
suit soon after. 

Tschetter’s individual ranking 

soared as well, as he cracked the 
top 150 in 247Sports’ composite 
rankings for 2021 prospects. 

“All of a sudden, everyone started 

to say, ‘Oh wow, this kid’s 6-8, shoots 
45 percent from three, is strong 
as an ox,’ ” Vaught said. “When 
everybody started to see it, then it 
didn’t take much for people to want 
him to be a part of things.

“If you have the ability and the 

skillset, somebody’s gonna find 
you.”

This was all occurring, of course, 

amid the backdrop of the pandemic. 
Competition was shelved, high 
school seasons and AAU circuits 
truncated. There would be no more 
games for Tschetter to prove his 
worth, or for coaches to evaluate his 
talent in person. 

Recruiting 
too 
was 
flipped 

upside down, the industry moving 
entirely online almost overnight. 
Schools would have to find a way to 
sell themselves through a computer 
screen. 

Zoom calls quickly inundated 

Tschetter’s schedule: chats with 
coaches, 
film 
sessions, 
virtual 

campus tours. Out of all the schools 
in his pursuit, Tschetter says 
Michigan was “most consistent” 
in reaching out. Martelli led the 
charge, connecting with Tschetter 
on a daily basis. The rest of the 
staff — Howard, Saddi Washington 
and Howard Eisley — checked in 
weekly. 

“One 
of 
the 
things 
that 

separated 
Michigan 
was 
they 

did an unbelievable job of being 
organized,” 
Vang 
said. 
“With 

some of these schools they’ll just 
call and offer, and it’s kind of a 
brief phone call and you might 

not even hear from them for quite 
a while. Michigan had multiple 
conversations that were really long, 
really detailed.”

“The coaching staff and the 

culture that they’ve built really 
stood out,” Tschetter said. “They 
were really genuine throughout the 
process, super trustworthy.”

Tschetter’s commitment is a 

testament to Howard’s holistic 
recruiting style. With Tschetter, 
Michigan’s 
pitch 
extended 

beyond basketball, encompassing 
everything 
from 
a 
“Michigan 

college experience” to academics — 
a particularly important aspect for 
Tschetter, an honors student who 
holds a 3.99 GPA. 

“The neat thing about Juwan is 

he really kind of has the big picture 
in mind,” Vaught said. “He didn’t 
just see him as a player, but as a 
person.”

In terms of a basketball fit, 

Tschetter is what Vang calls “the 
definition of what basketball’s about 
now.” At 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, he 
punishes opponents inside and 
out, equipped with an array of 
post moves and a deadeye 3-point 
stroke. He runs a 4.6 40-yard dash 
and was recruited to play tight end 
by Minnesota and Michigan State 
under Mark Dantonio. Girtman 
describes him as a mismatch for 
anyone on the floor. 

And even with the twists and 

turns of an unorthodox recruitment, 
he wound up where he belongs. 

“You can’t argue that (the 

pandemic) hurt Will’s recruitment,” 
Girtman said. “The only thing I 
think it did was delay those big 
schools 
offering. 
Those 
were 

inevitable. 
They 
were 
coming 

anyway, it just took a little longer.”

“Being able to take official visits 

and that stuff, I think it definitely 
would’ve been different,” Tschetter 
said of his decision. “But I feel totally 
comfortable with my choice.”

Will Tschetter’s unconventional road to Michigan

PHOTO COURTESY OF KASEY MORLOCK

Class of 2021 prospect Will Tschetter committed to Michigan after a self-guided visit over the summer.

JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Writer

Ybarra, Osman leading 
through difficult time

Leaders need to be able to 

adapt 
to 
whatever 
situation 

comes about, no matter how 
grave or difficult.

The Michigan men’s soccer 

team’s 
season 
is 
currently 

suspended, with a possible start 
date in the spring. For its players, 
the potential cancellation or 
further postponement of a season 
feels like a rock in their stomachs. 
But Wolverine captains Umar 
Farouk Osman and Marc Ybarra 
have a different narrative for 
themselves and the team. 

Michigan and other athletic 

programs across the country 
are facing an extraordinarily 
difficult 
situation. 
Yet, 
led 

by Osman and Ybarra, the 
Wolverines 
have 
persevered 

and stayed motivated through 
these peculiar times. During the 
offseason, even prior to their 
return to campus, Osman and 
Ybarra made a concerted effort to 
set an example that would trickle 
down to the younger players. 

“Before we started preseason, 

we had Zoom sessions every week 
to help with mental preparation,” 
Osman said. “The coaches gave 
us videos so that we were all on 
the same page and that we all 
understand the philosophy of 
the team so we have the same 
mindset.” 

For Ybarra, the difficulty 

of 
not 
playing 
during 
this 

unprecedented time is amplified 
by the fact that all of the players 
on the team were physically 
and mentally preparing for the 
team’s season over the summer. 
In August, it was extremely 
tough to hear that the season was 
postponed. Ybarra said the team 
is now preparing for a season in 
the spring, hopefully, with the 
NCAA Tournament moved from 
April 30 to May 17, 2021. 

For the Wolverines, leadership 

is of the utmost importance. 

“We are trying to create a 

driven culture, and it comes 
from the captains on the team, 
so we try our best to make sure 
the freshman feel comfortable,” 
Osman said. “We are all on 
the same mindset that we are 
here to work hard every single 
day, challenging ourselves and 
holding each other accountable 
in practice.”

According to Ybarra, there is 

a certain culture on the team to 
which the freshman are easily 
assimilating. 

“A 
lot 
of 
it 
is 
internal. 

We 
haven’t 
had 
explicit 

conversations with these players. 
They just came in excited and 
ready to go and a lot of them 
are playing really well,” Ybarra 
said. “The freshmen have been 
doing a really good job being 
smart, being safe. It’s definitely a 
different time to acclimate to the 
university, but I think the fact 
that we’ve had regular training is 
hopeful to give them a routine.”

JIMMY HEFTER

For The Daily

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Led by Osman and Ybarra, Michigan has stayed motivated through the pandemic.

Harrison Brown’s journey from

Queensland to Michigan

When he was about 10 years 

old, Michigan senior Harrison 
Brown began playing at a 
tennis center called Griffith 
University 
in 
Queensland, 

Australia. For two years he 
stayed there, training three 
hours in the evening — two 
hours of tennis and one hour 
of fitness. From there, he 
made the move to the national 
academy in Brisbane where he 
trained for another two years, 
from ages 12 to 14. 

In around late July to early 

August in his final year in 
Australia, he received an email 
from Andrew Stubbs, a coach 
from 
Montverde 
Academy 

in the Orlando area, offering 
him a full scholarship to play 
there. Brown didn’t know what 
to expect when he decided to 
make the move to the United 
States right before his fifteenth 
birthday.

“I had no idea when the 

school year was in America,” 
Brown said. “I’ve only ever 
known Australia, you start 
school in January, finish in 
December.” 

He knew going to Montverde 

was the right move for him 
because he wanted to go to 
college, but still, he weighed 
the pros and cons before 
making a decision. 

The major downside for him 

was that at 14 years-old he 
would be moving away from 
home and his family for the 
first time. At the same time, he 
also saw this as an advantage 
because it helped him become 
more independent. 

“I was happy with that,” 

Brown said. “I felt like I didn’t 
need to stay at home or be held 
back, I guess, from a better 
potential in the U.S.”

Montverde 
also 
offered 

him 
a 
full 

scholarship, 
something he 
didn’t 
have 

in 
Brisbane, 

with tougher 
competition 
and 
more 

opportunities 
to 
play 

international 
tennis 
tournaments 
in the U.S. 

“I feel like 

at that time 
when I was 14, I was ranked I 
think in like the top 10 or 15 in 
Australia for my age,” Brown 
said. “Then when I moved 
to the U.S I was like top 100 
basically.”

But 
Brown’s 
time 
at 

Montverde didn’t last long. 
One 
day 
in 
April 
of 
his 

sophomore year, he was called 
to a meeting. The tennis part 
of the academy was shutting 
down and replaced by a school 
team. 

“We 
never 
got 
told 

exactly why but we had our 
speculations and everything,” 
Brown said.

This left Brown with a 

dilemma. 
They 
gave 
the 

students at the academy one of 
three options: stay at the school 
at Montverde Academy and 
practice with the school team 
(which was a dramatic drop 
in level), go back to Australia 
or make the move to Hilton 

Head Island, 
S.C. to attend 
Smith Sterns 
Tennis 
Academy 
and complete 
their 
schooling 
there.

Wanting 

to 
continue 

his 
journey 

in the U.S., 
Brown chose 
to 
make 

the 
move 

to Hilton Head to train at 
Smith Sterns. He thought it 
would also be best for college 
recruiting. Once there, Brown 
found 
the 
experience 
was 

much different than it was in 
Orlando. 

“When when I went to 

Smith Sterns Tennis Academy, 
it was in a small neighborhood, 
things 
were 
very 
close 

together, the beach only took 
two minutes or three minutes 
to walk to, it was sort of like 

an island life,” Brown said. “It 
was basically tennis, school, 
sleep, like that. It was very 
disciplined and you didn’t 
really have as much of a choice 
of social things to do.”

During the time Brown 

was at Smith Sterns, his 
play improved significantly, 
and at the end of his junior 
year he started to talk to 
college coaches and began 
the recruiting process. He 
was driven both academically 
and in tennis, and decided he 
wanted to go to a college that 
was in the top 25 for both.

He 
began 
talking 
to 

Michigan 
coach 
Adam 

Steinberg, and the assistant 
coach 
at 
the 
time, 
Sean 

Maymi, and throughout the 
summer of his junior year 
and start of his senior year, 
the coaches came to some of 
Brown’s tournaments to watch 
him compete.

“I played well and we 

stayed in contact and they 
kept watching me for all my 
results,” Brown said. “Then I 
had a bit of a breakthrough in 
November or December of my 
senior year.”

In February of 2017, he got 

an offer from the Wolverines. 
He talked to his coaches, and 
unanimously they encouraged 
him to accept the offer and 
attend Michigan. 

“I gotta go here,” Brown 

said. “Hearing that from every 
coach is pretty special.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Senior Harrison Brown earned his offer from Michigan tennis coach Adam Steinberg in February 2017, following a string of strong performances. 

MADELINE STONE-WHEATLEY

For The Daily

I had a bit of a
breakthrough in

November or

December of my

senior year.

