North Platte – Sophomore Ethan Montalvo signed a National Letter of Intent Wednesday afternoon on National Signing Day with the Texas State University Bobcats, a NCAA Division I school located in San Marcos, Texas.
“It’s an awesome feeling to be signed to a D1 school,” said Montalvo. “My dreams have come true and I am really excited for the next two years to compete at the highest level.”
Montalvo was named to the 2013-14 Honorable Mention All-American Team earlier this week, becoming 8th player in program history to be named an All-American.
Along with being named an All-American, Montalvo was named All-Region IX 1st Team, All-Region IX Tournament Team and All-NCCAC 1st Team. As a freshman, Montalvo was All-Region IX 2nd Team, All-Region IX Tournament Team and All-NCCAC 1st Team.
Texas State University competes in the Sun Belt Conference where they finished the year 8-23 under first-year head coach Danny Kaspar.
“We are extremely excited to add someone the caliber of Ethan Montalvo to the Texas State Basketball family,” said assistant coach Talvin Hester. “We expect Ethan to make an immediate impact in our backcourt with his overall basketball skill set.”
“In addition, he brings a great attitude, high basketball IQ and a competitive edge to Bobcat Nation. He’s a winner. Ethan won in high school and at NPCC. We look forward to Ethan instilling some of that winning culture and attitude to our team next season.”
This season Montalvo led the Knights in scoring at 18.9 points per game and in steals at 2.2 per game while also contributing 3.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
Montalvo finishes his career with 1,173 points to finish 5th All-Time and ties Chase Grabau, Ben Wilson and Aboubacar Casse for most games played in a Knights uniform at 68. Montalvo started every single game of his Knights career.
“We will miss Ethan Montalvo here in North Platte,” said assistant coach Nathan Wieseler “but we are very excited for him to continue his career at Texas State. The staff at Texas State has done a great job recruiting him and has made sure he knew he was their top priority at his position since September. We know that Ethan will have a very successful career as a Bobcat!”
Montalvo has been a part of the most successful two year stretch in program history as the Knights compiled a 57-11 record during his career, including a Region IX Championship in 2013 and National Tournament appearance. The 57 wins are the most in program history in a two year stretch and the 11 losses are the fewest. Montalvo has never known defeat at McDonald-Belton Gymnasium finishing a perfect 28-0 in two years, also a school record.