By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Shay Stephens thought about getting away from home when he was going to choose a college.

Instead, the Notre Dame High School senior will be playing close to home in a program where he feels like he’ll be a good fit, after committing on Tuesday to play basketball at Western Illinois University.

“Thinking about it a little more, it’ll be great having family around to be able to come to my games, so I think that’s going to be really special for me,” Stephens said Tuesday night. “I’m not going to be far from home ,where I can just kind of come back whenever I need to. So I’m excited about that.”

Stephens averaged 20.9 points per game last season for the Nikes, ranking 43rd overall in Iowa and 19th in Class 1A. His 6.5 assists per game tied for fourth in 1A.

Stephens visited Western Illinois on Tuesday and watched the Leathernecks work out before touring the campus.

“I liked the way they played, and after thinking about it I decided that was going to be my home,” Stephens said. “I really liked the coaching staff and the players, and I liked the school.”

Stephens said it felt good to get his decision out of the way. He had a visit set up with Wayne State, an NCAA Division II school in Nebraska, and he was getting interest from Winona State, a D-II school in Minnesota.

“It’s a huge relief,” Stephens said. “I’d been stressing about setting up (college) visits, now that’s all out the window. Now I can kind of just go on with my school year. We just started yesterday, so I can just focus on that and focus on my senior season. So yeah, it’ll be good to prioritize that stuff instead of having to worry about the recruiting process.”

One of the things Stephens learned by watching the Leathernecks work out was he knows he’ll have to get stronger.

“Their weight program looks insane,” he said. “They’re very strong this year. So that’s going to be one of the biggest things I focus on this year, just getting stronger.”

The Leathernecks have one southeast Iowa player on the roster this season — Jake Edwards from Winfield-Mount Union. They are coached by Chad Boudreau, a southeast Iowa native.

“He kind of understands my recruiting struggle and how hard it is to really be seen out of my area,” Stephens said of Boudreau. “He understands kind of what I’m going through and how hard the decision can be. So I think he can kind of relate to my situation. So that’s pretty special to me.”