By Robbie Loeb
Just drop the “Westlake” and dress him in crimson, but wait until 2013. On March 11, basketball star Zena Edosomwan ’12 committed to play at Harvard University but will spend a year as a post-graduate student at Northfield Mount Hermon, a preparatory boarding school in Gill, Mass., 80 miles from the Harvard campus.
“I will be attending Northfield Mount Hermon next year to become a better player, and it works out well with Harvard,” Edosomwan said. “In that year, I can really grow as a person and develop more as a player.”
Edosomwan will reclassify as a part of the graduating class of 2013 and after playing and studying at Mount Hermon next year, he will enroll at Harvard.
“It’s the best school in the world,” he said of Harvard. “Their basketball program is on the rise. This year, they’ve made a lot of history and it’s something I want to be a part of. I want to have the best of both worlds. Academically and basketball-wise, Harvard does a great job of offering that to me.”
In December, the current Harvard team was ranked in the top 25 of the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ National polls for the first time in the school’s history. The Crimson went 26-4, won the Ivy League tournament and earned a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year. Harvard is the top-ranked university academically in the nation, according to the U.S. News’ college rankings.
“They’re a great staff, Coach [Yanni] Hufnagel and Coach [Tommy] Amaker, I just really enjoyed my visit,” Edosomwan said. “I didn’t really consider Harvard throughout this whole process, I just kind of thought ‘Meh, I wouldn’t want to go there,’ but after my visit everything changed.”
Edosomwan narrowed down his choices to the University of California, Berkeley, Connecticut, Harvard, Texas, UCLA, Southern California and Washington before ultimately deciding on the Crimson.
“That’s just where I felt most comfortable,” Edosomwan said. “I felt like I belonged there, with the staff and the players, and everything just fit very well.”
Of the players on the current Harvard roster, three have attended Northfield Mount Hermon.
