Wilde Makes Transition from Military Academy to MCC

It’s been an interesting journey over the past couple of years for Eric Wilde.

Wilde graduated from Crystal Lake South High School and then went on to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

This season he returned to play for the McHenry County College Fighting Scots’ men’s basketball team. Wilde has started and performed important offensive and defensive roles for the Fighting Scots, who demonstrated an up-tempo style and competitive spurts while competing in the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference.

“Wilde is a heady player who brings his maturity, intelligence, discipline and experience to the current squad," MCC Head Coach Jason Robinson said. "He is a smart, steady player on the court and he can really shoot it. Every game is a potential three-point shooting eruption for him.” 

Wilde, who was recognized in pre-game ceremonies on Thursday as part of MCC’s annual Sophomore Recognition Night, said there are some differences between being at West Point and playing at MCC.

“The schools themselves are completely different going from a fully-structured military academy to a community college,” Wilde said. “The curriculum called for more classes there and it was obviously more militaristic, structured and intense.”

Wilde added that he learned a lot from his experiences at West Point and brought those lessons to MCC.

“I was able to bring the work ethic from having to do so much there. With that highly- structured academic, disciplinary and daily physical activity regimen, it has helped me out a lot here, and I hopefully have imparted some of that to my MCC teammates,” he said.

Wilde stated that he came to MCC wanting to expand his athletic skills, play a lot of minutes, keep his basketball career going, work hard and prepare academically and athletically to go on to play at a senior college institution next year.

“MCC is close to home, provides a quality education at an affordable price, and gave me an opportunity to come in and play a meaningful basketball role right away," Wilde said. "It has been a great opportunity and a beneficial transitional year, both academically and athletically, toward eventual transfer back to a four year institution.”

— Wally Reynolds