Ryan Day excited to see Sonny Styles basketball skill translate to football
Sonny Styles is a five-star in the 2022 cycle and signed as Ohio State’s top-ranked recruit in the class.
But the nation’s No. 2-ranked athlete and No. 11 overall player would also undoubtedly be a Division I scholarship basketball player at the next level for a MAC or Atlantic 10 team if he had elected to pursue a college career on the hardwood instead of the gridiron.
Styles, a 6-foot-5 and 215-pound shooting guard/small forward for Pickerington Central (Ohio), posed one of the state’s biggest threats on the court from an athletic perspective and with his court vision.
Styles displayed that all season during 2021-22 for the Tigers, and over the weekend his season-long performance crescendoed into the ultimate prize: a state championship.
The Ohio State signee helped lead Pickerington Central to a 55-48 win over Centerville in the Division I state title game. It was the Tigers’ first Division I state championship in boys basketball in a decade.
Styles and Co. had a keen observer of that game Sunday night, and he was thoroughly impressed with what he saw as Pickerington Central (25-2) ended Centerville’s (29-1) previous 45-game winning streak.
“I watched the whole game,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I mean, what a great game. What a great atmosphere. I thought it was just fun. I enjoyed watching it. I wish it wasn’t 8:30 on a Sunday night, but that's all right. It was great to see. Centerville had a great team and played really, really well. But what a great game for Pick Central the way that they played and I thought he was tremendous.
Day has always been a proponent of the athletes in his program having played multiple sports in high school.
The Buckeyes typically want players to enroll early in January at Ohio State, which means giving up their final season of their winter/spring sport that they play.
Up until that point in their careers, though, Day has spoken often about the benefits of his football recruits branching out to wrestle or play basketball, soccer, baseball or another sport. It helps with different athletic aspects of players’ games like footwork, spatial awareness, physicality and building twitchy muscles.
Well, one of the stars of Day’s 2022 recruiting class and perhaps the most impressive athlete in the entire country in that class, built up an incredible reputation for what he could do off the football field. And that should translate well to the Buckeyes’ football program.
“When he decides he wants to go, what a great athlete he is and really skilled in basketball,” Day said. “A lot of times you see a football player out there, they're just kind of bouncing into people and kind of the goons out there knocking people around. That's not Sonny. He's very, very skilled and had some huge baskets in the fourth quarter. Some really good passes. I think the thing you notice about him is he doesn't get rattled, has great composure and great win.”
Styles was originally one of the top-ranked players in the 2023 class. But he reclassified in December to the 2022 class, and he will enroll at Ohio State this summer.
So Day will get his athletic profile – the one that helps him star in football and basketball – on campus sooner than later.
“I'm excited to see what that looks like on the football field once he gets here, because when he decides he wants to go, the explosion, just the power that he has, just jumping on the basketball court,” Day said. “And when he decides he wants to really take off and go to the basket. It takes like two dribbles, and he's at the basket. He's been blessed with a lot of athletic ability.
“He's done a great job for us in helping recruiting. He's built great relationships with his class and actually with the class that he was in before he reclassified. So we’re excited that he's a Buckeye.”