Recruiting Report: Eric Stai (2018)
Playing with one of the state’s best teams and one of the state’s best players combo forward Eric Stai of Rochester JM played a working role last year. This year he’s going to be counted on for more.
With guys like Isaiah Walden and Dedoch Chan parting for the college level there is valuable experience lost at JM. That said the Rockets have one of the elite players in the nation in Matthew Hurt plus Stai should be able to play a bigger role.
He spent a lot of time playing basketball at the 17U level and with his high school team this off-season.
“I played for D1 Minnesota Prospects in AAU, trained with the high school team at open gyms and skill development,” Stai said. “I played in the Gopher Team Camp and a couple other tournaments this summer and fall with our high school team.”
Eric shot 52 percent from the floor and 82 percent from the foul line a year ago. So much talent around Stai meant fewer shot attempts but he made the most of those attempts.
“Junior year was very successful, I was able to play a lot of minutes and gain a lot of experience from the seniors on our team,” Stai explained.
Eric scored five a game a year ago with 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists on average. This year he’s expected to be more aggressive as a playmaking producer.
“My main focus of improvement is starting to play more aggressive and get better at attacking the rim,” Eric said. “I also focused on working on my jump shot and getting a quicker release. And finally just becoming a leader for a varsity team without a lot of experience. “
With Walden, Chan, and Ray Adams now graduated there are voids that must be filled. Stai and Hurt will take care of a lot up front.
“We lost three key seniors in our starting lineup, so we have a have a lot of new guys who are going to need to step in this year,” Stai said. “We have three guys who have had varsity experience returning including me and Matthew (Hurt). The Big Nine is going to be stronger this year, so we look to be challenged every night we play.”
Eric has worked hard for this to be a special year both as a team, and for himself.
“As an individual my goal is to make the all conference team and do whatever it takes to help the team be successful,” Stai explained. “As a team we would like to win the Big Nine, and finally win our section and go to the state tournament.”
How talented is Stai? Several division three program are in contact and Eric has visited three of those college programs.
“I’ve been in contact with mainly MIAC schools,” Stai said. “I’ve been in contact with St. John’s, Augsburg, Hamline, Gustavus, and St. Scholastica. And I’ve taken visits this fall to Hamline, Augsburg and St. John’s. All for basketball.”