Cameron Cranston wants to keep his dream of playing NCAA Division I basketball alive, and will take another year in hopes of doing so.
Cranston, a Union High School senior who was named the Class 4A state boys basketball player of the year this past season, announced Thursday on social media he’s attending a prep academy next school year with plans to open back up his college recruitment process for the 2018-19 school year.
The 6-foot-6 Cranston will attend Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas.
“I’m super excited to see where it takes me and see what I can do when I put a lot of my time into it,” Cranston told The Columbian on Thursday night.
That time is a full year of not only working on his game, but specifically, developing his body, which Cranston said was one thing college coaches may have been turned off by.
Sunrise Academy can help him achieve that, he said, without starting the college eligibility clock.
“… some college coaches may have doubted me because of my athleticism or the way I looked,” he said. “I want to change that and be able to work on all of that and prove them wrong.”
Student-athletes attending prep schools or academies isn’t uncommon. Nationwide, it continues to be an upward trend for players, such as Cranston, to play a fifth year that doesn’t count against college eligibility.
While Cranston was recruited by colleges during the high school season, he said he began researching the prep-school route at the start of the school year, and immediately saw the benefactors.
In recent years, Sunrise Academy has sent players to major college programs, including Michigan State, Oklahoma and Purdue to name a few. One alumnus is Buddy Hield of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, who Cranston said he was told returns when he can to Sunrise Academy.
“That’s insane to have an NBA player come in,” he said.
At Union, Cranston averaged better than 19 points a game this past season to lead the Titans to the 4A state title game. In March, he was named the 4A state player of the year by the Associated Press, and leaves as Union’s all-time leading scorer.
