Under the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requirements, the first year a college can make a verbal offer is a player’s freshman year. After receiving his first offer freshman year from Kansas State University (K-State)i, junior point guard Ty Berry has received 11 additional offers from Division I colleges.

Berry started playing basketball at a young age of only four years old. Berry attributes his 13-year basketball career to self determination and God.

“Hard work and dedication has led to my success, along with the athletic abilities that God has given me,” Berry said.

To date, Berry has received offers from multiple Division I colleges. Of these 12, Berry has made eight college visits.

“I went to K-State, Nebraska, Creighton, Colorado, Iowa State, Mizzou, Minnesota and KU,” Berry said. “I had spare time and me and my family decided that it would be a good time to go up there and to visit campus and see how it would be.”

Not only does Berry survey the campus, but also participates in a multitude of events to grasp the college’s experience.

“A lot of times we just go to football games, we’ll watch practice, we’ll go out to eat and then hang with the players a little bit,” Berry said.

Berry said that he finds meeting the players to be the most exciting part, especially the older athletes.

“It’s kinda inspirational to see those older college guys and hang out with them just because they are already there and I can see how they like it and what their experiences are,” Berry said.

Berry travels with his Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) club team, KC Run GMC, leading to most of his recognition.

“Most colleges nowadays, they do most of their recruiting through my club team. So when you play AAU ball like with your club team and you travel, that is where most of the colleges go see and watch you play,” Berry said. “Most of the coaches will get my phone number from my AAU coach and then those coaches will call me and ask me like how things are going and then we just talk.”

Additionally, social media plays a role in student-athlete recognition. Websites such as Hudl and MaxPreps provide additional information a college coach may need.

“College coaches can see where you are at and how you are doing and they can watch videos of what’s going on,” Berry said.

Berry is not ready to decide just yet, but will make his decision regarding which school he will attend by the beginning of his senior year.

“It [waiting] just gives me time to think about how far I wanna go, where I wanna go,” Berry said. “I’ve always told myself I am just going to wait it out and see how many other offers I could get or like the best schools that I could get. I’m just going to wait it out and see what happens.”

Despite being highly sought after, the pressure of this does not affect him negatively.

“[The attention] is kinda fun and it keeps me hungry,” Berry said.