Watch Video of the 2010 Valedictorian from Clifton-Clyde Score His First Basket for the KSU Basketball Team!
by Brian Pekarek
Alex Potuzak, a 2010 Valedictorian from Clifton-Clyde High School, scored his first basket as a member of the 5th Ranked Kansas State University Wildcat Basketball Team. Potuzak is a "walk-on" for the KSU Basketball Team this year, but is quickly becoming a crowd-favorite. After the game, 27 News reported this clip of Alex (click on the link at the bottom of the page) and the Wichita Eagle wrote the following story about Alex:
From the Wichita Eagle:
Postgame: K-State 89, Alcorn St. 55
Alex Potuzak (from Clifton-Clyde High School, Clyde, KS) was sent into the game for two minutes of mop-up duty Monday night, and the 6-foot-11 forward found himself banking in a shot for the first basket of his collegiate career.
The Kansas State fans remaining at Bramlage Coliseum went crazy, and Potuzak (or Sticks, as his teammates call him) became a hot topic in the postgame interview room.
“If there was a Big 12 All-walk-on team,” said Jamar Samuels, “Sticks would be first team.”
“Sticks word hard, man,” added Jacob Pullen. “Sticks is a beast. If people could watch us practice, they’d see how hard Sticks is. He’s the first person on the floor for loose balls. Bloody noses, he take it all in practices, and he get up everyday, come in and work hard. For him to be able to get that opportunity to get that first collegiate basket was exciting for us because we see how hard he works.”
K-State coach Frank Martin said watching Potuzak score was a highlight for him. He has enjoyed being around the freshman, and thinks he may be able to help the Wildcats as he becomes older and stronger.
“I’m ecstatic for him,” Martin said. “Ecstatic. When a young man pays his own way to school and comes in and the first thing he ever says to me is that it’s been a life-long dream of his to come play at Kansas State and he goes in there and he competes like he does every single day, I’m ecstatic when he can have a moment like that.
“He’s still young. He’s a freshman. I think he could help us some day … That’s a memory that will be with him for the rest of his life. That’s what it’s all about.”
