13-year-old, 7th grade girls basketball player makes college commitment already
Katlyn Gilbert is a wildly talented girls basketball player. That much is not in question. What is surprising is what she's been up to lately. Unlike her seventh grade classmates, Gilbert has been weighing up her collegiate future even though she hasn't even set foot in high school yet.
In fact, according to the Indianapolis Star, Gilbert has even made up her mind. The Indianapolis (Ind.) Heritage Christian School youngster committed to play for Evansville after her college decision was cleared by her mother.
“It’s a long time away but there is a couple of reasons I allowed her to commit,” Gilbert's mother Stephanie Roach, the junior varsity coach at Heritage Christian School told the Star. “We run a basketball program so we are around college coaches all the time. We particularly like the college coaches at Evansville. So if everything is still the same as it now and those coaches are still at Evansville, we would love her to play for them.”
Of course, assuming everything will be the same at Evansville in six years is a significant leap of faith, which is precisely why Gilbert's early commitment feels so ludicrous. Add to that the fact that the 13-year-old has yet to compete at the high school level, let alone prove that she is ready for collegiate competition.
Heck, there's a reasonable chance she might burn out on basketball long before she even reaches college.
Nevertheless, Gilbert's mother and the Heritage Christian varsity coach both claim that she is on pace to achieve remarkable things, even if her commitment will almost certainly bring major attention from others that she might not have anticipated.
“She would have been competitive within our high school program,” Heritage Christian coach Rick Risinger told the Star. "She’ll be a nice well-rounded player. Nice attitude and has a good work ethic, those intangibles that are so important for good players. She develop as gets older and continue to get stronger and stronger. Her potential is exciting.”
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