Kettle Moraine basketball standout Grace Grocholski explains why she committed to West Virginia

The relationships are what mattered most to Grace Grocholski.

Athletes consider many of the same factors during the recruiting process. The question is how much weight do they place on each. Is style of play more important than location? Does playing right away carry more weight than joining a team with a greater chance of winning?

For Grocholski, the rising senior basketball standout from Kettle Moraine, it was the bonds she established that were her No. 1 priority.

“It’s about the people,” she said. “Those are the people you’re going to spend your time with.”

Grace Grocholski's former connections at Arizona State continued to help her

Recently the 5-foot-10 wing announced her oral commitment to West Virginia. The decision came almost three months after the former Arizona State commit re-opened her recruitment following Sun Devils coach Charli Turner Thorne's decision to retire.

Despite never officially joining the program, the relationship Grocholski built with Turner Thorne and her staff left such an impression that it shaped how the two-time first-team all-state player approached this new phase of her recruitment.

The connection remained so strong that after Grocholski decommitted the staff served as a sounding board in her recruitment, offering thoughts on where her game might fit best and reaching out to coaches on her behalf.

“They were really helpful in that kind of way,” she said. “Anything I needed. Any questions. It was super nice.”

West Virginia offers familiarity for Grocholski

Grocholski committed to the Mountaineers but also considered Wisconsin, Butler and Providence.

West Virginia is coached by West Bend native Dawn Plitzuweit, who was hired in March. She spent the previous five seasons at South Dakota where her staff recruited Grocholski during the couple months prior to her oral commitment to Arizona State.

According to Grocholski, Plitzuweit’s team plays similar to her club team, the Wisconsin Lakers, running motion offense and rely on three-point shooting.

“I visited (campus) coming back from an AAU tournament, out of the blue, because I had been talking to them for a little bit,” she said. “It was actually perfect timing. I finally talked to the head coach. I saw what she did at a place like South Dakota where she’s not going to get every recruit she (wants). Her demeanor and style of play is what I wanted for my college experience.”

Grocholski is an all-around athlete, starring on the basketball and volleyball courts

During the high school season, Grocholski posted career highs in field goal percentage (.559) and three-point percentage (.384) in leading the Lasers to the Division 1 championship. The Classic 8 player of the year, she  averaged 21.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 steals.

The championship run capped an impressive junior year. In the fall, she was first-team all-state in volleyball and led Kettle Moraine to the Division 1 state semifinals. Her success as a multi-sport athlete earned her the Journal Sentinel’s female athlete of the year award at the Milwaukee High School Sports Awards last month.

This offseason is the first she has not played club volleyball, allowing her to focus on basketball. She is working with Next Level and has a personal trainer, preparing for her senior year with an eye on being ready for the college game.

She'll make her commitment binding during the early signing period in November.

“I got the question a bunch of times “What’s your timeline for this recruiting process?’," she said. "I didn’t really think you had to have one, especially at a time like that. (I wanted) to just take my time and see what I wanted to do. No one put too much pressure on me, which was really nice.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why Kettle Moraine's Grace Grocholski committed to West Virginia