08-12-2009, 06:41 AM
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No more football for Craft
Future Buckeye to focus on basketball
Tuesday, 11 Aug 2009
Howard Chen
FINDLAY, Ohio - Aaron Craft has been a Liberty-Benton household name ever since his freshman year for both football and basketball.
Craft has been the starting quarterback the last three seasons, all with deep playoff runs, capped off by last year's trip to the state championship game.
However, Craft is verbally committed to Ohio State to play basketball, along with three of his AAU teammates.
So after a summer full of thinking, Craft decided to opt out of football to focus on being ready for the Buckeyes.
"The big thing is, Ohio State, they need a point guard. They put their trust in me. They're taking a chance on me for next year, and they need me ready for next year to play," he said.
"If they're taking that chance, then I've got to do everything that I can no to make myself ready for that jump to college next year."
Craft made his decision after talking it over with his family and Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta. He says injuries were not really a factor, since anybody could easily get hurt playing either sport.
"By the time I get to Ohio State, I want to be a solidified point guard," he said. "I want to be able to take care of the ball. Dribble it in any situation. Being able to get pressured, and being able to create for other people and that's a big thing that a point guard needs to do."
Craft intends to improve in all these aspects by working out in the gym with his father 2-3 times a week, then heading down to Columbus once a week to work with his AAU coach. He'll also go there on a separate day during the week to play with some of the past and present-day Buckeyes, something he did on Monday.
"Having (Greg) Oden on my team, that was just huge. You can do anything you want. Score anytime down the floor," Craft said. "It's really great being around those guys. They're really great to be around. They're fun to talk to. They mess around just like we do here. It's just on a larger scale. It's just really cool."
As cool as those experiences may be, it was tough for Craft to break the news to his now-former Liberty-Benton football teammates.
"It is really tough, especially being my senior year and not being able to be around those guys, my classmates ever since the 6th grade when I came. That's probably the toughest thing, knowing that I'm, in a sense, letting them down, because I know they were counting on me, and letting other people down as well."
But to make up for any letdown, Craft's trying to pump up his basketball game, so that when the time comes, everybody realizes the sacrifice was for the big picture - the Buckeye picture.
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No more football for Craft
Last edited by Buckskin86; 08-12-2009 at 08:04 AM.
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