By Chris Monter
Chase Carter, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound junior forward/defensive end from Minneapolis (MN) Minnehaha Academy, is one of the top two-sport athletes in the state.
Carter, the son of former Gopher standout Randy Carter, has helped lead the Redhawks to a 12-1 start and a #11 ranking in the country by MaxPreps as they are outscoring their opposition by 28.5 points per game.
Carter is averaging 6.8 points per game this season for the Redhawks.
GopherHole caught up with Carter after the win over Waseca Tuesday to talk about the latest on his recruitment and his junior season.
GopherHole: You are playing basketball right now, but you play football as well. I know that your dad was a former Gopher basketball player, but you are getting more recruiting for football. Do you have a favorite sport right now or is what you are playing at the time?
Chase Carter: I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a favorite sport. I like both of them and it kind of depends on, I know that it is weird, but whenever I am playing football, I like football more. Whenever I play basketball, I like basketball more, so I’ve just been playing both. Having fun, while I still can, Talking to Jalen (Suggs) and guys like that who played both and my old teammates Terry (Lockett) and Kaden (Johnson). Talking to them, they were just saying, “enjoy every moment of it,” because you have to make a decision, you are going to miss it. A lot of them miss basketball. Jalen misses football, so I don’t really have a favorite. I would say that I like both of them equally. Love both of them equally.
GopherHole: Obviously, you are a good player, but is it kind of nice that you can play at a somewhat smaller school where you can play both, where if you were at a bigger school, you would maybe have to pick one or the other?
Chase Carter: Yes, for basketball, for sure. It is the one where I feel I fit and I’m wanted, whether that be a small school like St. Thomas here or a Utah State, Santa Clara. Smaller schools like that that I have talked to. Those schools are not necessarily, I would say big offers, like high major, but I think going somewhere where I am wanted, same thing for football. I just happen to have more recruiting on the football side right now, so I would just say going somewhere where I am wanted and somewhere where I feel I can develop over the next four years wherever that be
GopherHole: What offers do you have for football right now?
Chase Carter: I have Iowa State, Iowa, Nebraska and Michigan State.
GopherHole: What other schools are you hearing from besides those four
Chase Carter: Minnesota, Louisville, Ole Miss and I was hearing from Stanford a little bit and Oregon State.
GopherHole: What are you hearing from the home state school?
Chase Carter: I actually have a call with Coach Wills, the defensive line coach tonight at like 9:30, so just hearing from them and talking about being as hometown crew, kind of like the Tyler Johnson thing. No better place than home and stuff like that and seeing the kid from Alexandria (Kristen Hoskins) commit home and Coach (Matt) Simon was talking to me about that in terms of going somewhere where this is home and creating something here. That is probably the biggest thing they have talked to me about.
GopherHole: Want would it mean if they maybe extended you an offer?
Chase Carter: It would mean a lot because it is hometown. Everybody loves to get the hometown offer. The program with Coach Fleck, they have a program that is building, I feel like in terms of growing stuff and it would be awesome to have my mom at all games and cheering and stuff like that, so it would be super nice.
GopherHole: Your dad is obviously from Minnesota, but he has lived here pretty much ever since he was done playing basketball. What does that say about his feelings about the state?
Chase Carter: I’ve talked to him about that, actually, because I wonder when I go to Tennessee and see his home. I’m like what would make you want to stay up here in the cold and he says that the Minnesota nice thing is an actual real thing in terms, of it just felt like home. He said at first, he didn’t like it because he wasn’t used to being around so many people who weren’t the same skin as him and didn’t act like him. He said that as he grew to his senior year, he realized this was somewhere he wanted to further himself. He felt that it was the best place for him. I would say a home feeling, he would say is the biggest thing. That is why he stayed here.
GopherHole: What about basketball. You mentioned that you were hearing from schools. Have you gotten any offers in basketball?
Chase Carter: I haven’t gotten offers. I’ve gotten interest from Minnesota, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Florida and Hampton. I’ve been hearing from Utah State, Santa Clara, Coach Tauer from St. Thomas and smaller schools like that. Schools like that are waiting to see building off high school and AAU, me being in a bigger role and stepping up and being able to play in a bigger role. It’s kind of hard to show here because we have so many good players. One night I could have 15 and the next night, I could have two. Just stepping up in a bigger role. I feel that AAU is going to be able to showcase more of my skill this year. Right now. I’m just trying to win championships by whatever means necessary.
GopherHole: Like you said, you are playing on a great team, but is it ever a little frustrating because if you were on a different team you might be scoring 15, 20 points a game?
Chase Carter: Yes, I would say that it gets a little frustrating at times, but I always have to remember that I chose this. I could have stayed and went to Park Center, which was close by my house. I could have stayed at Marantha and been in a bigger role, but I feel like I choose this route because I feel like it is going to help me the most in the long term and terms of basketball and football. I just think furthering myself, learning how to play with better players and playing better competition like IMG and playing the Hopkins and playing the Minneapolis North, I feel like me growing here is going to help me getting better playing against Chet (Holmgren) every day and playing against Jalen and them last year. I would say that is going to help me grow and I also want to win a state championship, so that is a big goal for me.
GopherHole: Do you like the recruiting process so far?
Chase Carter: I do, I do, I do. COVID has kind of screwed a lot of things up, in terms of I can’t really visit anywhere, but talking to coaches, building relationships with coaches, is always really good to me. I think that I am starting to actually sit down and realize that I have about a year left before it is actually time to go to college. It has always been, I still got years, years, years, but it is getting closer to that time to sit down and really talk to coaches and build relationships is really cool to me.
GopherHole: Obviously, you have some teammates like Chet and Jalen who have gone through that. Does it help that you can talk to them?
Chase Carter: Yes, it helps a lot. Talking to Terry (Lockett) from last year, who is at Michigan State now in terms of just saying “make sure you pick somewhere where they want you, not just where you want to go. I talk to Jalen all the time, in terms of he had a lot of offers from other schools, but he felt like Gonzaga was the place to further himself and whether that would be me picking a smaller school over a bigger school where I am sitting on the bench for two years and hopefully play my third year or going somewhere and making an impact right away or at least trying to get a chance to. I would say that is probably that is the biggest thing that I have learned from them to go where I am wanted, not where I want.
GopherHole: How about having your dad? How much does that help because he has gone through it, too?
Chase Carter: It helps a lot. It is frustrating sometimes because in terms of him critiquing me and stuff like that and watching my game and picking everything apart about it. But I would say that it definitely benefits a lot, because a lot of stuff I can work on in terms of furthering my games, especially on the hardwood floor, just in terms of the little stuff that can build me up into being a better player like him and getting the rebounds and little skill stuff. I like to watch some of his old stuff on Twitter. I like to watch some of his old stuff and combine his more power move game with a little bit of skill and finesse into it, because I feel like I can do what he did with a little bit more skill. I always tell him that I am better than him. He says “not yet,” and I say “you are going to see though.”