On Saturday, JJ Zavatchin announced his future college plans. The 6’4” senior small forward of Oostoburg High School (WI) and Chapman North Basketball will be headed to Bethel University in Minnesota next season.
In his junior season at Oostburg, Zavatchin averaged 21.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.2 steals to earn himself first team all-conference honors in the Big East South. This high level of play continued into the grassroots season with Chapman North as he averaged 10.5 points and 4 rebounds while shooting 56.3% from the field on the NY2LA Platinum Elite over the spring and summer.
“I really loved the campus, location, coaching staff and overall community feel at Bethel,” Zavatchin said about his decision. “I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to make an early impact and step into a program with a new coaching staff.” Some of the other programs recruiting him included Carroll, Northwestern College, St. Norbert, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, among others. “I decided to commit now because I had visited a couple other schools that checked a few boxes, but Bethel checked every box in a school for me. It also was a little bit of a weight off my shoulders to be committed.”
The commitment comes after he recently visited the Minnesota school on the 13th and 14th of this month. “Loved it,” he first said about the visit. “The school community was great, and the coaching staff was very engaging. I got to play with the guys and go to a football game as well which helped me get a good scope of what attending Bethel would be like.”
When asked about his future of fitting into the Bethel program, Zavatchin said “Coach (Gabe) Miller’s goal is to move the ball offensively and get the best possible shot. They also want to push the ball in transition and play fast which I think is something I fit very well into. Defensively they play very similarly to Oostburg, so I’ll fit in with that as well.”