June 1, 2010

Fulton signs to play at Rio

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's junior varsity basketball program has signed Zack Fulton of Logan Elm High School to a letter of intent to play basketball beginning in the 2010-11 season.

Fulton was a 6'6" forward/center for a Logan Elm squad that made back-to-back deep tournament runs in 2009 and 2010, including a state semifinal appearance in 2009.

Fulton will give the RedStorm jayvee squad a very strong presence inside with his strength and his athletic ability. 

Rio Grande junior varsity head coach Ryan Arrowood likes what he sees in Fulton. "It's very exciting, he's a high motor, tough, hard-nosed kid," Arrowood said. "Zack's been in a great program. He's played in a final four, Division II, very successful program. He's been very well coached."

"Zack has such an upside because he's been a back-up behind a great player, but he's got a lot of minutes," Arrowood added. "The style of offense that they really had was extreme slow-down, control the tempo and it's been very successful for them and he's already talking about improving his jump shot."

Fulton is excited to be a part of the Rio program and is ready to get started immediately. "I'm excited, I'm ready, I'm prepared to play some ball," he said.

Fulton briefly discussed the deciding factors that helped him choose Rio Grande as a college destination. "It's a small town, the education program and the history of the basketball program," Fulton said.

Fulton assessed his strongest assets as a player and also some areas that he feels he needs to improve on as he prepares to play at the college level. "My best assets are my size and my athletic ability," he said. "I need to work on my jumper and my ball-handling."

Arrowood sees a tremendous amount of potential in Fulton. "He's got tremendous upside," Arrowood said. "We're excited about him and he just wants to play basketball and wants to play it at a high level and I've talked to him about that, he's excited, he's bought into it, he's already participating in off-season work-outs and key thing is the character that he will bring to the campus and to the school."

Fulton plans to major in Secondary Education with an emphasis on mathematics. 

Fulton listed two things that he knew about Rio Grande prior to signing. "I knew about Bevo Francis and that they had a strong education program," he said. 

His goal while playing at Rio Grande is very team-oriented. "I want to be a team player and contribute in any way possible," he said.

Zack is the son of Bud and Candy Fulton of Laurelville, Ohio. 

Fulton joins South Point High School standouts Cody Taylor and Ethan Prater as the newest members of the Rio Grande junior varsity program. 

The RedStorm junior varsity squad posted an 8-9 record during the 2009-10 season.