Stockmals Make Their Pick
It’s been a heck of a week for the Stockmal twins. On Saturday, they led Watertown to their second state championship in the last three years. Five days later, they received their acceptance notification from New York University’s Stern School of business, one of the top five business schools in the country. Now, both Cory Stockmal and Kyle Stockmal are headed to NYU.
“Getting into Stern was really the deciding factor for me,” Kyle told the New England Recruiting Report.
“I think the deciding factor for me was getting away from home a little bit,” said Cory.
And that’s typically the way it works for the Stockmals…they often end up in the same place, although not necessarily by taking the same route.
“We didn’t plan on going to school together,” Cory explained. “We both just said we were going to pick the school that was right for us as individuals and if it happened to be the same place then so be it.”
Kyle agreed with his twin brother although he did concede that, “In the end, I kind of suspected that we would go to school together.”
The two brothers have a similar pattern on the basketball court, where they have very different games but consequently end up forming a devastating 1-2 punch.
Kyle is more of a scorer, Cory a distributor. Cory is a lock down defender, Kyle a great perimeter rebounder. Both have a tremendous basketball I.Q. and feel for the game…and both are pure winners.
“We compliment each other so well on the court,” said Kyle. “When we’re out there together we both benefit.”
It has been Kyle who has picked up more of the individual accolades including the Middlesex League MVP and Waltham News Tribune Player of the Year Award last season, while becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer this season.
But that doesn’t seem to bother Cory a bit who has two All-League honors of his own while cracking the 1000 point barrier earlier this season.
“For me it’s never been about the personal accolades,” he said. “I’ve been happy for Kyle every time he’s gotten an award or broken a record, but winning has always been the most important thing for me. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in my defense and that doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet.”
Ultimately, both brothers were nominated for this year’s McDonald’s All-American Game and most importantly, both brothers were instrumental in leading Watertown to two state titles.
Now, they’ll spend the next four years trying to lead NYU to a UAA championship, one of the toughest leagues in all of division III basketball.
And while both Cory and Kyle are very excited with their decision, they’ll head to New York with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.
“I’ve always thought I could play in the Ivy League and I still do,” Kyle said. “I had some schools tell me to go to prep school and they would recruit me again next year, but ultimately the entire opportunity is never going to be better than this.”
“Obviously everyone’s dream is to go division I,” Cory added. “But I didn’t want to be somebody’s back up plan. I wanted to go somewhere that the coaches really wanted me. That along with being in Stern and in the city…I realized this was the best overall option.”
And so it may be.
The Stockmals will stay together, get one of the best educations in the world, and have a chance to continue to do what they do best…win championships!
Cory Stockmal
Kyle Stockmal