NEPA Elite Coyle 17U point guard Justice Shoats began the week by receiving his first two scholarship offers on consecutive days.
Lock Haven University stepped forward Monday and another National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II school, Georgian Court University, followed Tuesday.
Shoats is heading into his senior year at Holy Redeemer where, along with being one of District 2’s top basketball players, he became a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A state champion in the long jump in his debut in track and field last spring.
The Coyle team from the AAU club out of Riverfront Sports in Scranton finished up its season during the weekend, winning 10 of its final 13 games with Shoats as one of the driving forces with his scoring, playmaking and defending.
At Holy Redeemer, Shoats was named Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 Player of the Year and first-team, all-District 2 by NEPABasketball.com as a sophomore for his role in the Royals District 2 Class 3A championship. Last season, he was a first-team division all-star and second-team, all-district choice while reaching 1,000 points for his career.
Along with other Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference schools, Lock Haven sat out the 2020-21 season. The Bald Eagles were 9-13 in the PSAC and 12-15 overall in 2019-20.
Georgian Court, from Lakewood, N.J., had an abbreviated Central Atlantic Athletic Conference schedule in which it went 2-5 before having the final three games canceled. The Lions were 7-12 and 9-18 in the 2019-20 season.
Located about 10 miles from the Jersey Shore, midway between Philadelphia and New York City, Georgian Court became fully coeducational in 2013 “after a long history as a women’s college with coeducational graduate programs and undergraduate evening programs,” according to its website.
