Recruiting Report: Tommy Donovan (2018)
Carlisle’s Tommy Donovan knew what he wanted, and he went and got it.
The 6-foot-2 senior-to-be knew two things: he liked the Black Hills and he wanted to study political science in college. So he found a school that offered both, and he went to some camps there, impressed the coaches and worked his way into a scholarship.
Donovan will play at Division II Black Hills State next season, in Spearfish South Dakota.
“When I first started looking at schools, places in the Black Hills and the Grand Canyon, I really like those kind of places. And when I found the school up there I really liked that they had my major, which is political science, that’s something I’m really interested in doing,” said Donovan.
“And the school is in a really pretty place, and a small town. I’m a small town guy from Carlisle and I really like that environment.”
Most kids hear about schools which might be interested in them through their high school or AAU coaches, but Donovan — a Kingdom Hoops product — was mature and proactive in his approach, he did all the legwork himself.
“Actually, how I got in contact with Black Hills State was not through Kingdom Hoops. I went up to a camp last year, and I performed pretty well at it, and I went up for a visit and camp again, and at the camp they told me I had a spot on their team,” said Donovan.
“We haven’t talked about the specifics of the scholarship yet. But it will be a basketball scholarship. And I’m a good student too, so we’re waiting to see how much I’m going to actually receive academically, and by the time it’s all said and done it should be very close to free if not all free.”
There were some other schools around here that had Donovan on their radar, but as it is, he’ll play at the South Dakota D2 next season — he’ll be the only Iowa guy on the roster.
“Waldorf was really close, I had gone up there about three times for visits, games and practices and things like that. I also went up to Morningside to visit, and they were probably the next biggest to recruit me,” said Donovan.
Only a handful of guys in each class get the opportunity to play scholarship ball at the D2 or D1 level. Donovan joins Jackson Joens (Upper Iowa), as the other early D2 commits in the 2018 class.
“I’ve wanted to play college basketball for quite some time now, so being able to do that and at this level is obviously something I’m not going to take for granted,” said Donovan. “I’m just really excited to have the opportunity to do it.”