Recruiting Report: Noah Tomlinson (2018)
Yesterday, we caught up with Grove City Christian’s 6’6” forward Noah Tomlinson (2018) just an hour or two after his visit to Heidelberg. As it turns out, it has become a pretty normal happening for Tomlinson at this point, as many NAIA and D-III programs are pursuing him for their 2018 class.
“I just got back from Heidelberg … I’ve been to Otterbein, Lourdes University, and Ohio Northern as well,” Tomlinson said.
While Lourdes is the only school to offer Tomlinson a scholarship — with Lourdes being an NAIA school, they’re the only school able to do so — that doesn’t mean they’re the only one who wants Tomlinson to join the program.
“All those schools that I’ve visited, they’ve offered me to be on the team. But, I guess the real offer that I have for an athletic scholarship would be Lourdes University,” Tomlinson said.
Of the visits Tomlinson has been on, one school has stuck out above the rest.
“I really liked all of them. But, right now I’d say Lourdes. It was really nice. They were talking to me about their facilities. I went on a visit there and their facilities were brand new, like $3 million worth in the athletic facilities last year. It was pretty nice,” Tomlinson said.
Tomlinson is only interested in colleges where he can major in sports management, which Lourdes does. He also plans on taking another visit to their campus in the coming months.
“I want to study sports management. So if a college doesn’t have that, then I really don’t want to go there because some day the ball is going to stop bouncing and you’re going to need something to fall back on. And that’s what I want to do,” Tomlinson said.
Though we mostly talked about the four schools that Tomlinson has visited, he does have interest from others.
“Muskingum wanted me to come down there during October, so that’s pretty soon. Go there for a football game. Marietta has been talking to me, but we haven’t discussed any visits yet … Notre Dame College, talking to them. And Holy Cross,” Tomlinson said.
Tomlinson, a 3.0 GPA student-athlete with a 25 score on the ACT (which he will attempt again), hopes to make his college decision around the holidays.
“I want to make a decision around, like, Christmas and New Years, around that time. So I can have an easier time half-way through the season and get rid of all this stress, and focus on more on basketball and the tournament.”
Tomlinson is optimistic about his final season at Grove City Christian, despite graduating eight seniors. As one of two returning varsity players, he’s excited about taking on the role as a leader and primary scorer.