Wayne High School athlete Michael Redding has committed to going to college at Ball State University. Redding spent three years of high school at Wayne after transferring from Carroll where his father, Mark, coaches girls basketball. Michael played both basketball and golf in high school. His brother Dillon attends Ball State.
“I’m a science major…and they’re building a new science building, and so to me be in the first year and to [also] be in the science building would be pretty awesome,” Redding said. “And they also have new STEM dorms which are also for the math and science [students]…They gave me a lot of academic scholarship money too. So it’s kind of a cheap way for me [to go to college], and it’s not far from home.”
Redding chose Ball State over schools such as Cincinnati, Manchester, and Rose-Hulman. During one of his visits to Ball State, he spent a weekend visiting his brother. However, he did not get to visit some of the other schools he was considering due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Redding will study Biology and Pre-Dental. He hopes to pursue a career as a dentist. Pre-Dental is not necessarily a major, but a two-year prerequisite for Dental School.
“To be a dentist, you have to go through four years of a science major of your choice; it could be chemistry, [or] biology; you get to choose. And so I chose Biology,” Redding said. “And then Pre-Dental is more like a two-year prerequisite course for Dental School. So you’re basically getting the guidelines and you’re taking small courses along the way. So if you do get accepted into Dental School, you at least have a feeling of what it’s going to be like because of the two years you had of Pre-Dental.”
Redding will not be playing basketball or golf at Ball State. He did say that he might play church league or recreation league basketball. In fact, when he was looking at schools, there was a time when he considered playing basketball in college. But in the end, he chose not to play for a college team because he wanted to focus on his studies and his career.
“Dentistry is something that I’ve wanted to do since I went into high school,” Redding said. “So I’ve taken a lot of science courses that I enjoyed. Then I’ve shadowed implant doctors and have shadowed other dentists as well. It’s really something I’ve really thought about, how maybe playing a sport in college and trying to be a doctor as well would be something very hard to do especially with all the rigorous courses you have to go through.”
Even though Redding won’t be playing any sports for Ball State, he had a very successful basketball career at Wayne. As a senior, he was the Generals leading scorer; averaging 14.5 points per game. He also led the team in assists with 1.2 per game. During his junior season, he was Wayne’s second-leading scorer behind Craig Young. Redding averaged 9.2 points per game that year.
“The three years I was at Wayne were definitely one of the highlights I’m really gonna look back on, especially both of the coaches I had in Coach [Aaron] Rehrer and then Coach [Byron] Pickens; both great guys, both made my high school career great, I thought,” Redding said. “They make the game fun to be around. They just make us enjoy it, and especially with both those coaches, they want us just to live in the moment and not think we’re too big for the moment because you only get to play high school basketball for four years. And some people don’t move on to play college basketball, and others do.”
During his junior year, Redding was teammates with Craig Young who was a senior that year. This past season, Redding was part of a senior class that included Quincy Miles and Jaquan Kizer.
“The fun thing about being teammates with those guys at Wayne is really not the on-the-court stuff you see, it’s the off-the-court; you know the funny things they do like the dancing, and jokes we’d have in the locker room,” Redding said. “They’re all great guys to be around, which just made it fun to play. Then once we got on the court, they were always ready to play and compete hard, and they always do what they’re told to by the coaches, and by the leaders. I really enjoyed it because they’re easy guys to play with.”
Redding spent two years on the Wayne golf team. He shot a score of 94 in the 2019 Canterbury Sectional at Chestnut Hills. He and the Generals did not get to play this spring because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Golf is definitely something way different than basketball because it’s more of a mental sport than anything. But I really enjoyed it,” Redding said. “It was fun especially learning different types of the things it takes to be a good golfer, like the mental aspect and how much practice really goes into it, and all the small techniques of your swings and just the footwork that people don’t really get to see and all that stuff. I enjoyed it. I really wish I got to play my senior year because coming in last summer, I’ve been playing a lot of junior tournaments to get ready for this high school season. But I still enjoyed it. And the good thing I love about golf too is you can play it for the rest of your life. Like when you’re retired or you’re going through college, or once you get out of college, you can still always play golf.”
