Patient Ortale secures his spot
Patience can be a difficult demand for anyone. For a high school athlete, it can be the ultimate ask.
Michael Ortale had a Division I scholarship basketball offer from Siena College and strong interest from other schools, and then he did not.
Ortale, at the time in the first month of his junior season at Bethlehem, suffered a severe right ankle injury and his recruitment virtually dried up in an instant.
The hard work and the conviction he truly was a Division I player never wavered in Ortale, so he was forced to play the waiting game. That patience paid off.
Sunday, Ortale decided to accept an offer from Iona coach Tim Cluess to play his Division I basketball in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
“He has been waiting for this for quite some time. I think he deserves all the best,” Bethlehem coach A.G. Irons said. “This was a month or so in the making. ... I think he is a steal. He is only going to get better.”
“He fits and it is a good situation for him,” said Jhason Clark, who coached Ortale with the Albany City Rocks. “Coach (Cluess) really wanted him and I think he is going to have a pretty good career there.”
“I went to visit the campus and watch a game,” Ortale said. “I took a tour of the campus and talked with coach (Cluess). He really reminded me of my high school coaches. It seems like he is a big relationship guy, which is a big thing with me. I didn’t want to have any doubts that I wanted to be there.”
The 6-foot-4 senior standout is averaging 16.5 points per game and has made 50 3-pointers for the Eagles (19-1), the No. 1 seed for the Section II Class AA playoffs.
“It is a great feeling seeing one of your friends make it,” said CBA senior point guard Jordan King, who played with Ortale with the City Rocks. “We played together the whole summer. I liked playing with him a lot. He is going to be great next year.”
Ortale is grateful seeing everything work out, but he knows — as does Irons and Clark — that it was not easy to remain calm.
“There were some rough patches and frustration, but
he really was able to stay positive,” Irons said. “He just wondered if it was ever going to happen.”
“There were a few times when he called me at 11 or 12 o’clock wondering what was going on,” said Clark, who is an assistant coach at Division III New Paltz. “I just told him it is going to take time. It definitely
worked out.”
“Not being 100 percent and not being able to show my full strength was frustrating,” Ortale said of his summer. “I am grateful for my family, friends and coaches that stuck with me. Coach Clark kept tellingmetostaywithitand he kept pushing for me.”
The irony here is practically the moment Ortale made his decision selecting Iona over Loyola (Md.), he suddenly garnered strong interest from St. Bonaventure, Troy and Niagara.
“I told him, ‘One day you will have nothing and the next day, everything will come at once.’ That’s sort of what happened,” Clark said.
“It is Jordan’s turn now,” Ortale said. “I can’t wait to see where he goes.”