The All-GMC forward at Lakota East spent five years at the campus in near Fort Lauderdale in Davie, Fla., and has no regrets.
“It’s been great,” said the 6-8 Mangold, who averaged 5.6 points per game each of the last two seasons and also helped the Sharks win it all in 2023. “Obviously another another championship is great. Living there has been fantastic. It definitely forced me to grow up a little bit more rather than if I were to go to school in Ohio or Michigan or something like that.
“So I’ve loved my time there, truly. Every single second of it. I’ve improved as a player, as a person, and just being around the diversity down there. It’s just great, and I’m definitely spoiled to the weather at this point, which is a good problem to have.”
Springfield native Tyler Eberhart took a longer route to the winner’s circle.
A two-time CBC Kenton Trail Player of the Year at Kenton Ridge, he spent four seasons at the University of Charleston in West Virginia.
He was a two-year stater for the Golden Eagles, averaging 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds in 88 career games, before entering the transfer portal last year with UC in the midst of a coaching change.
That led him to a whirlwind recruiting process unlike what he experienced coming out of high school.
“It was pretty crazy for me,” he said. “For the first probably four or five days, it was just nonstop. My phone was just absolutely blowing up. I think I went in the transfer portal about noon on Monday, and about 6 p.m. that day, I had like 70 text messages, 20 missed calls, emails, Instagram DMs, Twitter DMs. It was so hard to keep up. I had to make an Excel spreadsheet with all the schools and coaches names and everything. So it was pretty hectic, but it was a good problem to have that. I’m fortunate enough that that many people wanted me, and I was of importance to a lot of coaches.”
Helping the Sharks’ pursuit of him was not only their recent history of winning but a familiar face in Mangold, who was a teammate in AAU one summer when both were still in high school.
“Just having another person that I’ve known before this showing me the ropes of how things work here and just showing me around the city and getting me acclimated was pretty cool,” he said.
Nova Southeastern turned out to be a great fit for Eberhart, who averaged 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds while starting all 37 games for the Sharks this season.
“It’s pretty awesome, honestly,” said Eberhart, who scored 14 points and grabbed three rebounds in the national championship game. “It was a dream of mine entering college. I always had that goal set out for myself and felt like I was close to my previous school, and then I got the opportunity to come here, and it all worked out.
“All those hard times, all those hard workouts with the team and with myself over the summers just kind of all comes back to you, and you realize everything happens for a reason, so I’m super thankful, and I’m just really happy and feel pretty accomplished.”
Now both young men are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives.
Mangold earned a degree in entrepreneurship in December and is looking to finish work toward his MBA in June.
“I love talking to people and making connections and keeping relationships, so I feel like that’s just right up the alley with with the business school,” Mangold said.
“I chose entrepreneurship, which is very, very broad, thinking of potentially starting my own business or working for somebody else. So hopefully I can do something in the business field. I’m looking into getting into the healthcare industry, more on the physician relations or business development side of a hospital, or potentially something in medical sales. So I’m to the point now where I’ve got to figure all that stuff out, I’ve been focusing on winning winning basketball games the past few months, so now after this bit of celebration, I’ll definitely be locking in on that stuff.”
Eberhart earned a degree in sports business at Charleston and is working on his MBA at Nova Southeastern, but he isn’t ready to hang up his basketball sneakers just yet.
The 6-7 forward has hopes of playing professionally.
“Hopefully somewhere in Europe would be ideal, but that’s definitely the next stage of my life,” Eberhart said. “I don’t know how long I’ll do it, but I think as long as my body lets me, I’m going to try to do it, and then after that, I’m probably going to try to get into some collegiate coaching, trying to give back what I’ve learned.”
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