Gracie Merkle knows Kentucky coach Krya Elzy and her staff will be watching her play in July. (Twitter Photo)
For Gracie Merkle, recruiting has been both exciting and overwhelming the last month or so. The 6-6 senior center from Bullitt East says all the schools she has visited “have been pretty good and jumped out to me” in their own way.
“Every place I go is amazing,” she said. “I didn’t grow up playing basketball. I didn’t start until sixth grade and now all the phone calls and text messages from coaches can be overwhelming. At the beginning, it was fun to see how many schools were interested in me. As I get more and more calls and texts, it got stressful.”
Merkel averaged 18.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game last season while shooting 51.9 percent from the field for her regional championship team that lost to Bethlehem in the state tournament.
She suffered a minor knee sprain about a month ago but expects to be back playing for Indiana Elite Venom next month when AAU play resumes — she is the state’s second-ranked player in the 2022 recruiting class behind Amiya Jenkins of Anderson County.
Merkle has made visits to Kentucky, Tennessee-Martin, and Bellarmine recently and plans to go to Miami of Ohio and Northern Kentucky soon.
She’s looking for a “family atmosphere” on a college team.
“I am not a girl that likes drama. I do not want to have to deal with that in college,” she said. “I also don’t want to be too close to home where family is always in my business but I don’t want to be so far away that I cannot get home when I need to.”
She had dreamed of playing in Rupp Arena like she got to do at the state tournament since she was 4 or 5 years old.
“I have always been a Kentucky fan. I am a die-hard fan,” she said. “My whole family is Louisville fans. I stayed on the Kentucky side. For Kentucky to recruit me is like a dream come true.”
If she got an offer from Kentucky, it would be hard to turn down but she intends to keep all her options open.
“The Kentucky coaches told me they were looking for a player that would play hard on defense. They need a big so if the opponents get past the defense I would be ready to block a shot or get the ball out of the paint so they would not score so easily,” Merkle said.
“I know they will be watching me in July and I will just go out and give everything I can so I can hopefully end up getting an offer. I did tell coach (Kyra) Elzy if I go there we will win a national championship.”
What does she need to show Kentucky — or other schools — in July?
“Just that I can be more mobile and do different moves,” Merkle said. “Get up and down the court. Be in better condition than I was. Just run as long as I can to stay in the pace of the game. On offense, move my defender more so I can get shots up.”
She is trying to develop a more consistent 15-foot shot and also spent time in her driveway working on free throws and improving her left-hand skills after she got off crutches earlier this month.
“I do want to go to college and play my first year and I think I can do that,” Merkle said. “But if it turns out to be Kentucky, I know they will have juniors and seniors that probably would play over me to get me ready to play when they are gone.
“I really do want to try and commit before the start of my senior season to take all that stress off. Or at least commit no more than two months into my senior season or something like that. Recruiting is fun at times but it is also very stressful.”
