Nate Bruns Stock Rising!
Marion Local’s Nate Bruns Gaining D1 Interest
Nathan Bruns, a multi-sport athlete, had a great junior year on the grid-iron and basketball court and college coaches are really starting to take notice. Colleges better act quick as he’s looking to make a decision this July.
You could argue that Nate Bruns (Marion Local) had about as good of a junior year as any kid in Ohio. This fall, he was the quarterback for Marion Local, the Division VI State Champs (Beat Kirtland 34-11) and the team finished the season 15-0. Nate threw 2 touchdowns and finished the game 10/15 passing for 178 yards.
This past winter, Marion Local’s basketball team beat Cornerstone Christian in double overtime to win the state championship 52-51. Bruns hit a crucial three pointer late in the 4th quarter to help send the game to overtime. Late in the 2nd overtime, Nate buried another 3 that tied the game with 17 seconds to go. He finished the game with a double-double: 18 points and 14 rebounds.
After finishing his junior season averaging 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists a game, Bruns earned 1st Team All Conference and 1st Team All Northwest District. Throughout this past year, he’s picked up offers from division 2 schools such as: Findlay, Urbana, and Malone. Nate picked up a Toledo offer during an AAU tournament playing for Northwest Ohio Basketball Club. Wright St. has shown some interest lately and wants to get Bruns on campus. Some other MAC schools other than Toledo are starting to take notice of his talent and they should get into the picture soon because he’s looking to commit this July. Bruns (6’6/ 200 lbs) wants to commit before the football season so he can just focus on football and then basketball once the season starts.
For those of you that have never seen Nate play, he’s a 6’6 wing that creates a difficult matchup for his opponents. He is a good spot shooter with range that extends out past the 3 point line. He has the ability to guard shooting guards, wings and post players. By improving his lateral quickness, this will help him stay in front of point guards when his man sets a screen, the ability to switch that screen will be an option. Nate also has a “clutch-gene” because he’s always making big plays late in games, including this year at state hitting the 3’s and he also hit a big 3 at the buzzer his sophomore year to send a favorited Wayne Trace team home in the District Final.
To prepare for his senior season, he’s playing AAU for Northwest Ohio Basketball Club and his high school is attending different team camps such as Findlay and Ohio Northern. They are also play in a summer league and had a scrimmage with Crestview a couple of weeks ago. Nate is really working on shooting off the dribble, tightening up his ball-handling and improving his lateral quickness this off-season by getting in gym early in the morning.
When choosing a college, Nate will consider the location of the school, how well he gets along with his future teammates, the amount of playing time he’ll get and also academics. He’d like to major in math education or maybe even business. Bruns carries a 3.7 G.P.A. and has a score of a 22 on the A.C.T. When choosing a school, Nate said, “location will be the most important factor when choosing a college.”
Bruns has several goals that he wants to reach this upcoming season. He added, “I currently have 872 career points and I’d like to break the school record of 1,365 points. I’d like to win Player of the Year in the conference and to be honest, I feel like I got robbed on All-State honors this past year so that is something that is really motivating me for this upcoming season. As far as the team goes, we’d like to win the conference again and make a deep tournament run.”
Marion Local is no stranger to deep tournament runs as he already has accumulated 3 state championships between football (2) and basketball (1). Bruns said, “We are raised by parents who are supportive of the coaches we have here at Marion Local. Whatever the coach says, you better listen. When the parents are saying the same thing as the coach, you have no choice but to do what’s being asked of you.”
Coach’s Quote: Doug Davis (Wapak Head Coach/NW Ohio 17U Coach)
“Nate is a tough match up because he can play inside and out. You can throw a guard at him to pressure him, but he’ll just post up your guard. Then you throw a bigger guy at him and if your big doesn’t close out all the way on him- he’ll shoot the 3 and then if he closes out too much, Nate will go right around him. The thing that sticks out the most about Nate though is that he plays hard. He comes up with a lot of loose balls and then late in a tight game, he wants the ball and makes plays. It even seems like his energy level goes up a little more late in games.”