As I reported yesterday, UConn commit Courtney Ekmark is making the surprising move of bypassing her senior year of high school. Her decision to get the final few credits she needs to graduate through home schooling means that she will not be playing for the third-time defending Arizona Division I champion St. Mary's squad.

Courtney and her dad Curtis talked about the decision with me today.

"I am really excited. I think it is going to be a good year to do a bunch of different things and it will be productive," Courtney Ekmark said. "It will be a great chance to prepare for UConn, I am going to have a lot of time to train and just get bigger, faster, stronger.

"I can go and figure out what I am interested in doing after basketball so it will be cool."

Ekmark was named the Gatorade state player of the year in Arizona following her junior season. Her coach was her father. Curtis was the first to step away from St. Mary's as he resigned so he could start up his own AAU program. He is supporting Courtney's decision 100 percent.

"Our family has never been one bound by conventional wisdom," Curtis Ekmark said. "We've always tried to analyze things and see what makes sense. We kind of have a track record in that Courtney home schooled in junior high and she thought that really prepared her well for high school not just for sports but academically as well.

"She has been taking classes at summer school so she is only a couple credits shy of graduation. She just decided that rather than sit in class all day and have Senioritis, she really wanted to prepare herself for going to UConn. She will have more time to do that and also she will be able to spend a little more time with our family and we are happy about it because it is the last time we will be together for a while because once she leaves for Connecticut, they don't get much free time to come home."

Curtis Ekmark said that his daughter is looking into doing internships with a law firm, a local surgeon and real estate company. She could also provide sideline reporting of high school football games for one of the Phoenix area television stations.

"There are a couple o local news stations that I have done interviews with for basketball and I have kind of talked to them after and they are like 'wow, you are pretty good at doing those interviews,'" Courtney Ekmark said. "I said 'well, if you feel like you are interested and you need somebody to report the football games every Friday ...' They were definitely interested. It will be fun to see what I am interested in and see what a real job is like."

The toughest part of making this decision is that Courtney had to part ways with her high school teammates in both basketball and tennis.

"It was hard, I am going to miss them but they understood," Ekmark said.

The good news is that she will be able to see more of her brother Andrew's basketball games and take part in more family activities.

"We have a close family so I am excited to spend the last year with them (before heading to UConn)," Courtney Ekmark said. "I'll get to see more of my brother's games, we never got to see them last year because we were always at my games. We can go on some cool trips and I sure we will come visit you guys at UConn."


CURTIS EKMARK