Thursday, August 14, 2008 11:11 PM CDT
Ozee to continue basketball career at MacMurray
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
ARCOLA -- Zac Ozee, a recent graduate of Arcola, is to attend MacMurray College and continue his basketball career for the Division III school, which competes in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Ozee, a member of the Journal-Gazette/Times-Courier all-area team, led the Purple Riders in scoring, rebounding and three-point shooting at 16.2, 8.4 and 39.7 percent respectively.
Ozee, the all-time single season leader in receptions for Arcola, visited Millikin for football. Ozee was a first team all-Little Okaw Valley Conference tight end and defensive end last fall as Arcola made its first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1998-99. Ozee had 41 receptions for 584 yards for the 10-3 Purple Riders, coached by Jarod Kiger.
“I looked at MacMurray and liked it better and decided to play basketball,” said Ozee, who doesn’t rule out the possibility of playing football next year for the Highlanders. “I like the smaller school. You get to know everyone. I like the coach. He seems like a good guy. I want to concentrate on one sport the first year. I don’t want to get to involved in sports and forget about schoolwork.”
Ozee, a high honor roll student, plans to study business.
“He has come a long way in the last year,” said Arcola coach Chad Graves. “A lot depends on how he adapts to the speed of the game.”
MacMurray was 4-24 last year and have not had a winning season since 2001-02 when the Highlanders finished 15-10 under Bob Gay. Todd Creal, who was the assistant coach at Millikin the past three seasons, takes over the helm.
Ozee, who is expects to be a shooting guard, saw MacMurray play during the school year and has played with them during the summer.
“This is a big accomplishment,” said Ozee. “My freshman and sophomore year I wouldn’t have thought I could play at the college level. My hard work is coming through and I am playing college ball and maybe I will go somewhere else in a couple of years.”
Ozee, who averaged 2.9 points per game as a junior and is a three year letter winner, earning first team all-LOVC honors last year and shot 45 percent from the field for the 14-16 Purple Riders, coached by Chad Graves. He had only four games he didn’t score in double figures and he made the Dieterich Holiday All-Tournament team.
Ozee has had help by former MacMurray player, Stan Boyer, a 2002 Arcola graduate.
“Stan Boyer helps me out with the new strength program,” said Ozee. “I have been doing a lot of strength training. When he went there he got stronger and more athletic and I asked him how he did that and he laid out a workout for me. I made a few more friends because people knew him.”
Ozee, who also ran track, finishing second in the area in the 800 with a time of 2:05.1, is to be joined by another LOVC player in Cerro Gordo’s Travis Johnson.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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