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Eli Wood valued familiarity and relationships when it came to selecting a college. Although the four-star senior from Prospect, Kentucky wanted to gain new experiences, he also wanted to ensure he was comfortable in his surroundings.

Bellarmine University in Louisville fit all the parameters.

Four-Star Senior Eli Wood Has Committed to Bellarmine
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“The big reason for me has to be that I knew I was going to like my teammates because some of them I grew up playing with and they were from around here. I think that is probably the most important thing for me,” Wood said. “I wouldn’t be going to school and meeting new people that I may not get along with. I didn’t want to feel kind of trapped, because you will be with those guys all the time.”

Bellarmine head coach Will Davis contacted Wood early in the recruiting process.

“He reached out to me months and months before I even considered talking to other coaches and I already knew him,” Wood said. “We got along right away and he was very insistent about me taking a look around at other schools. But he kept up with all my results and watched me at tournaments. That was nice.”

Wood considered schools like UT-Chattanooga and UNC Asheville, but realized Bellarmine offered a lot he liked close to home. The timing was ideal because the university moved from Division II to Division I in 2020.

“I wanted to go D1 and I think that going to Kentucky or some big name school wasn’t super realistic,” Wood said. “So I was looking for D1s where it would be more realistic for me to play.”