SOUTH EUCLID – Three years later, Will Vorhees has no regrets about how his recruitment turned out. But some of the schools who passed on him might have a few.
Vorhees, a 6-foot, 8-inch power forward from Columbus Grove, is averaging 28.5 points and 11.1 rebounds a game for Notre Dame College, an NCAA Division II program in suburban Cleveland.
He has scored more than 30 points in seven games this season for the Falcons (13-5) and since Jan. 1 he has had games of 44 points twice and 42 points another time.
Vorhees also had two strong seasons before this one. He averaged 20.7 points a game and 9.5 rebounds a game last season and was a starter right away as a freshman, when he averaged 14.2 points and 7.2 rebounds.
At Columbus Grove, Vorhees was first-team All-Northwest Conference twice and honorable mention All-Ohio two times.
He averaged 17.6 points and 8.2 rebounds a game as a senior. His career high was 30 points against Allen East as a junior.
But until Notre Dame College got involved, there weren’t a lot of scholarship offers.
“There was an NAIA school named Bethel. That was the only other school. I was pretty under-recruited,” Voorhees said.
Notre Dame began looking at him after Columbus Grove JV coach Eric Maag, who had played for the Falcons, told their coaches they should check out Vorhees.
Things picked up speed in a hurry after Notre Dame saw him in person.
“They offered me a full ride right on the spot. It was funny. They offered me a full ride during warm-ups before they even saw me play. They saw how big I was and how I shot the ball. I didn’t take too long to commit here,” Vorhees said.
Notre Dame coach Tim Koenig said, “It was Eric Maag, it was all Eric Maag. He gave me a call and said, ‘You’ve got to see this guy.’ Then he called a second time.”
After that second call, Notre Dame assistant coach Tim Baab came to a sectional tournament game to see Vorhees.
“We saw Will for five minutes and knew we were going to offer him,” Koenig said. “The game hadn’t even started. We couldn’t talk to him before the game but we told the coach we were going to offer him.”
Vorhees started his big month of January with 44 points in a 97-93 win over Glenville State on Jan. 3, which earned him Division II National Player of the Week honors. He scored 44 two weeks later in a 78-77 loss to Shepherd College, then got 42 points in a 96-75 win over Urbana University last Thursday.
He was 50 of 70 (71 percent) on field goals in those three games.
Vorhees has improved in several areas since arriving at Notre Dame, Koenig said.
“He’s up to 246 pounds. He’s stronger, he’s way more athletic, he plays above the rim. He handles the ball better, he’s shooting better,” the Notre Dame coach said.
Vorhees says he still has room to improve.
“I want to play at some type of professional level after college, so I need to improve my ball-handling and I need to get quicker, definitely improve my free throw percentage and I want to become a more consistent 3-point shooter,” he said.
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