Hutton: Results vary for players at prep schools

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Bishop Noll's Milos Kostic holds up apiece of the net for fans after defeating Westview 51-41 and becoming the regional champions on Saturday in North Judson. | Scott R. Brandush~Sun-Times Media

Updated: December 13, 2011 8:56AM

For every Mitch McGary story — local kid struggling with grades and injuries finds basketball stardom when he moves onto prep school, where he focuses his immense skills, buckles down in the classroom, gets his own blog on ESPN and then becomes a top-ranked player in the country — there is at least one other story like Nick Peller’s.

Local kid leaves high school basketball to attend essentially a prep school to chase his dream of playing college basketball, which is still a shadow in the distant sky with no clear-cut resolution in sight.

While he’s chasing the dream, Peller, a Munster resident, misses out on a state tournament run. The run ended for the Mustangs in the semistate with a missed 3-pointer at the buzzer that would’ve tied the game.

Still, Peller, the sixth man for the Mustangs in 2009-2010 and a kid who certainly would’ve played an integral role for them last year, has no regrets.

“There was a time when I missed it,” he said of skipping his senior year, “but I’m happy with my decision.”

Peller’s decision was to attend IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., so he could devote full-time to developing his basketball skills while finishing his senior year. He is back in the area this week, playing at the Fieldhouse in Merrillville at the Midwest Prep Showcase this weekend.

The goal: To get noticed among a crowd of some of the best high school ballers in the country in a gym that will be crawling with college basketball coaches, looking for the next undiscovered gem. Peller’s time at IMG, which trains elite young athletes in soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, lacrosse and football, has helped sculpt his body, improved his vertical jump and turned him into a better ball handler and shooter.

It comes at a steep price, though. Tuition alone for the school is more than $16,000 per year. That doesn’t include room and board and athletic instruction, which easily double the price. Golfers and tennis players can easily spend in the neighborhood of $100,000, depending on the package they choose and where they live.

Peller, who graduated from high school last year at IMG, is taking a college course at IMG as part of a transition year to college. Mostly, his days are spent in total basketball immersion, lifting weights, practicing with the team and doing individual drills. The post-graduate team is barnstorming the area this week, playing junior college teams before they arrive in Merrillville. Peller, a 6-6 small forward, said he hopes to land a scholarship to a Division-I school.

“I’m getting better and better down here,” he said.

For Milos Kostic, a 6-8 point forward who left Bishop Noll for Traders Point Academy in Indianapolis, the move this summer was less traumatic and more pragmatic. Kostic, who is from Serbia, experienced all the screaming, raging fans and Hoosier Hysteria to the hilt last year when the Warriors made it to the state title game, losing 43-42 to Park Tudor.

“It was a huge experience for me,” Kostic said of playing in the state title game. “I’ll never forget it. It was fun.”

He left Noll for multiple reasons: His sister, who is his caretaker, moved to Indianapolis. And after verbally committing to Northwestern, Kostic decided he needed the year-round workouts and the constant exposure to elite competition to improve his game and his body. As an added bonus, Kostic attends an excellent school that has just 50 kids in it. He also gets to play with two European kids who share his philosophy about the game.

“I’m better and I’m stronger,” he said.

The move to prep school to shore up his grades obviously helped Adonis Filer. He just earned a scholarship to Clemson. But he left in a more traditional way — after completing his senior year of high school.

Darius Stevens, a West Side/Merrillville player for three years before transferring to LaLumiere, is listed as a freshman on the Columbia University basketball roster. LaLumiere helped get him a scholarship but it took two years and he had to endure a coaching change.

Tyrone Appleton, who played for Roosevelt for two seasons, never really did play much Division I basketball. Appleton went to two prep schools to lift his grades, a junior college in Texas and then he played for Kansas for a season before leaving because he rarely got on the floor.

What’s the right move for a promising basketball player trying to break through to college? Hard to say, but there are plenty of options if you’re willing to sacrifice some of the best times of your life for the sake of your dream and realize, just like any business proposition, sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn’t.