Redman commits to CMU

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Boyne City's Corey Redman received and accepted a scholarship offer from Central Michigan after attending a recent camp there. Keith King

August 6, 2012

Redman commits to CMU

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Mon Aug 06, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT

BOYNE CITY — Corey Redman has no idea what he's going to study when he goes to college. It's no surprise, since he'll only be starting his sophomore year of high school next month at Boyne City.

What Redman does know, however, is where he's going to college. Redman gave a verbal commitment to Central Michigan University and coach Keno Davis on Friday, becoming a member of the Class of 2015 for the Chippewas.

"They seemed very nice and they worked you out hard, which I liked," Corey Redman said. "They just seemed like a good group of guys. It's always been a dream to play D-1 basketball. And then to be two hours away, that's perfect for my family to come watch me."

Redman, a 6-foot-4 15-year-old, made the varsity squad last winter and averaged 12 points and five rebounds for the district-champion Ramblers. He's been playing a lot of basketball this summer, including with two AAU teams where he played up an age group.

"He made the Reaching Higher Top 100 a couple of weeks ago," said Nick Redman, Corey's dad and Boyne City's coach. "There was about 150 college coaches there. He was one of only a few freshmen about to be sophomores there. And I thought he played well. He fit in and held his own."

When plans for Redman's AAU team to go to Indianapolis last week fell through, Redman went to Central Michigan's camp instead.

"I got a call from (assistant coach Jeff Smith) asking if I was going to pick Corey up from camp. I said 'no, my wife is,'" Nick Redman said. "He told me Coach Davis wants to meet you and he's going to offer Corey. I about fell over. I called my wife and told her not to leave yet, because the coach wants to talk to you. She and Corey went into Coach Davis' office and they talked about how much they like Corey.

"He tells my wife that he's offering a scholarship. My wife didn't know that Division 1 scholarships are full (tuition) so she asks how much money he's talking. He said 'no, you won't have to pay for anything.' Then she about fell over."

Former Central Michigan coach Ernie Zeigler had also shown interest in Redman a year ago.

"He was kind of on the radar last year with Central with their old coaches," Nick Redman said. "When we went to team camp, he won a couple of games for us when he was an 8th grader, about to be a 9th grader. They invited him down to an underclassman recruitment day last year."

The new coaching staff also likes the Boyne City product, telling Nick Redman he was their MVP from camp last week.

Corey Redman won't be able to sign his letter of intent for another few years. That timespan was the only concern for Nick Redman, who asked Davis if Davis would hold up his end of the bargain when Corey reaches his senior year. Davis told Redman that the only thing that could possibly hurt him is if he got in trouble with the law or if his grades get bad, because Davis wants good character kids.

"I told him that I can guarantee that none of those will happen," Nick Redman said.

With those issues aside, Redman was happy to offer a verbal commitment.

"We were just at Reaching Higher and Zack Novak had a speech about getting offered by Valparaiso as a sophomore," Nick Redman said. "He didn't commit and he didn't get another offer until the very end of his senior year, when he got lucky and got offered by (Michigan). He was that close to not getting a scholarship. It was a great speech from Zach, and it got me thinking. We had always talked about how that would be a perfect fit if he could somehow ever be good enough to play there."

Now, Redman can focus on being a normal high school student.

"That's what we thought too," Nick Redman said. "It's a perfect situation for him. And now he can just play high school sports and enjoy it."

He'll obviously play basketball in the winter, but first up is football, which begins today. Redman is a quarterback for Boyne City, looking to take the position his older brother, Jay Redman, held last year. Jay graduated and is playing basketball at Lawrence Tech.