The Northfield Mount Hermon quartet of Ian Sistare, Aaron Falzon, Josh Sharma and AJ Broduer are taking a cross-country trip with coaches John Carroll and James Cormier to visit numerous schools. They will be contributing a Player Blog to ZAGSBLOG along the way. Check back later for future updates on visits and offers.
My name is AJ Brodeur from Northborough, MA and I am 6’8″ rising junior at Northfield Mount Hermon School. This past season, I was able to make contributions to a strong basketball program, and we made it to the National Prep tournament final four, as well as the New England tournament final four. I have two years left at NMH and I hope that we will be able to make a couple championship runs.
Starting June 10th, Josh Sharma ’15, Ian Sistare ’16, Aaron Falzon ’15, and myself set out on a journey through the midwest region to visit the schools of interest along the way. Driven by head coach John Carroll and assistant James Cormier, we have already visited 6 schools in 4 days. Most recently, the last three universities we have been to include Purdue, Illinois, and Iowa. All three of these colleges had unique aspects to them such as their campuses, team philosophies, and player development. We were privileged to have the coaching staffs take time out of their days showing us around campus and talking about their current and future plans for the program.
Out in Indiana, Purdue University was a place where the hospitality of the coaching staff could be felt within our first few steps on the Purdue campus. Right away it was clear that academics play a big part in the life of a Purdue student athlete.
Purdue is known for its Aerospace program with men like Neil Armstrong and Gene Sernon, the first and last men on the moon, coming out of it. After our academic tours we sat down with the coaches and talked about the current and future plans for the program. I liked how individualized and personal the strength and conditioning program is. The future looks bright for every aspect of Purdue University! Boiler up!
The next stop on the tour was Illinois University. On the way, we stopped to eat at The Beef House, voted the best steak house in Indiana, where we enjoyed a cafeteria-style meal. We were approached by an Illinois basketball fan who told us how great the university was. That just goes to show how strong the fan base of the Midwest truly is. Following our arrival on campus, all four of us got a nice workout in at the practice facility. Once we spoke with the coaching staff, I liked how clear it was that one on one skill development is a priority to the basketball players. Coach Groce also had a nice story about him building up programs from scratch and achieving beyond all of the expectations! We loved seeing the campus by golf cart! The hospitality of the coaches made it an outstanding visit. Go Illini!
The long trip to Iowa had us arriving at our hotel around midnight. Even then it was not too late to be greeted by rowdy Iowa diehards asking us if we were here to visit the school. They went on to tell us that this was the best place in the country. So far, I love the passion of the fans out here. We ate breakfast at the Bluebird Diner right on campus. There is no doubt that the breakfast I had that day will be the best of the trip. I enjoyed the tour of the rest of campus. Back at the arena and practice facilities, we played some 5 on 5 with some of the Iowa guys. We had an awesome time there and I really liked learning about the school! On Iowa! Go Hawks!
We love hearing all of the coaches stress the importance of having high character people, academic success and basketball achievement as pillars of their programs We call it “the NMH way”.
Now, we’re on our way to Madison for our visit with Wisconsin on Sunday. I can only hope that the rest of this trip is as great as the last couple days!
Go NMH!
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