Millbrook High School develops virtual basketball recruiting site amid COVID-19 pandemic
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Will Felton has played varsity ball at Millbrook High School since he was a freshman. Now a rising senior big man, he's generating major buzz.
"It's been fun. It's new, and I think it's a good experience. It's still new, I'm still learning," Felton said.
Among the many schools poking around are NC State and UNC.
Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts has been a fixture at games, and Felton attended the Tar Heels game against Miami.
Millbrook head coach Chris Davis knows the interest is legit.
"We do 5:30 a.m. workouts, you know, two days a week when we're in school and in the preseason," Davis said. "For those coaches to come at 5:30 in the morning to come watch Will work out, you know, I thought was good."
Obviously, given the current quarantine, recruiting is very limited and might be throughout the summer. Knowing that, Davis and team promotional wizard Evan Moesta came up with a plan.
"Let's take the resources we have, let's take the digital platform that we have and let's, let's make the most of it," Moesta said.
The result is MillbrookBasketball.com - a password-protected site where college coaches can log in and see full games, get grade information and emerge fully informed. And it's not just for the Wildcats' blue-chippers like Felton.
"They all have unique, different situations because one might need to be looking at a State or Carolina but then some others might need to be looking at a Division II school. And that's not a bad thing, we embrace that," Moesta said.
Davis was blown away by Moesta's efforts: taking the seed of an idea and making it fully operational.
"Evan said 'give me a minute.' He sent me this thing and I'm like 'you gotta be crazy. I don't know what you're doing, I don't know when you sleep but this stuff is awesome.' Not only college coaches but high school coaches, junior college coaches, Division II, Division III. All of them just raved about how it looks and what it does."
As for Felton, he said he's not planning to make any decisions about college until next season but he's appreciative of all the efforts on his behalf.
"Helping us build the connection to the coaches, show the coaches what we're good at. And I think it's really, really important to us."
