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Ariel Edwards instantly felt different after verbally committing to play basketball at Penn State on Monday.

 

“You just feel a lot the pressure go away and how much pressure you were under,” the Christ the King senior forward said.  “You realize how much lighter and freer you feel and how much less stress you have.”

 

Edwards planned all long to make the decision before the school season started, hoping to focus on just basketball from here. She chose the Nittany Lions over Boston College, Pittsburgh and a host of other Division I suitors. Edwards said she was impressed with coach Coquese Washington and her staff along with all that Penn State had to offer. She likes the size of the campus, saying it was just big enough and the atmosphere the school will have during football season.

 

“It felt right,” Edwards said  “It was like I knew that was where I was supposed to be.”

 

The large number of alumni, its superb academic reputation and the opportunities a Penn State diploma brings you after college impressed Edwards, too. The Nittany Lions’ loyalty as well.  They along with Pittsburgh and Boston College were all recruiting her from the beginning.

 

“All of the schools that were in my top three were all there from the beginning,” Edwards said. “It’s hard to develop the same relationship with schools that come late to the recruiting process.  It makes you wonder, ‘Where have you been all this time?’ It’s definitely a big part of it.”

 

Penn State is getting an extremely versatile player, who Christ the King coach Bob Mackey said has “limitless potential.” It was sometime he saw many times during her junior season in Middle Village after Edwards transferred from Elmont. Edwards, who helped CK win the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens title last season, can score out on the wing and with her back to the basket and can defend both perimeter and post players. She is excellent in transition as well.

 

“I think when everyone looks at Ariel they see a very big guard, a Tamika Catchings type, a Swin Cash type,” Mackey said. “She is a forward who can play outside and score.”

 

Edwards, who is ranked eighth in the country among power forwards by ESPN, proved herself worthy of that ranking at the U.S. Junior Nationals in Washington, D.C. last week. She helped lead her Philadelphia Belles AAU team to the Gold Division final, where they lost to Cy-Fair. Edwards more than held her own against the best players and teams in the nation.

 

“I knew she was good,” Belle coach Brian Creech said. “I didn’t really know how good she was until I really got her and put her in different situations.”

 

Edwards said she is going to take a break from basketball now that the AAU season and recruiting process is over, but she knows that there is more work to be done and improvements to make. The relief of picking a college should only make that easier.

 

“I think the fact that she made this decision and gotten this process out of the way,” Mackey said, “I really see her taking her game up a notch.”