When you hear the word New Hampshire, the first word that could come to mind is beautiful state. It is located in the north east part of the United States and has breathtaking landscape and has less than 1,5 million inhabitants. Some other things that come to mind is the beautiful granite that is all over the place, nice mountain area’s to go sking for a day and also in politics as having the second primary in the presidential election voting cycle. Basketball is something that doesn’t come to mind when talking about the state New Hampshire. It has a few pro baseball clubs, but no pro basketball team. On the other hand it does have college basketball teams. It has 2 schools with New Hampshire and Dartmouth battling in the NCAA and 3 schools in division 2 with Franklin Pierce, Southern New Hampshire and Saint Anselm. That I would actually be visiting a game between St Anselm and Southern New Hampshire is something I normally wouldn’t have done, but it isn’t every day you can see a German kid competiting and of course it has a special flair when he is the son of a legendary German player. Before I walked into the small gym that had seating only on 2 sides, I inspected the roster on the wall as there were fotos of all the players. And there he was #22 Elias Rodel. I raced into the gym and caught both schools in Warmups: I looked for 22 and there he was taking shots and smiling and having a good time. He was a lot taller than the last time I had seen him. A lot can happen in 6,5 years especially with the growth spurt of a young man between 15-21. I last saw Elias Rodl (198-F) in May 2017 as he had helped the Alba Berlin U-16 JBBL team together with current NBA player Franz Wagner win the German title. He kind of had slipped my mind since the last years. By chance, I had come across his name and when I saw he played at St Anselm, I felt it was worth a trip. I was by chance on a short visit in New England to visit family, so watching him play came in handy. It really is a small basketball world as Elias Rodl is living the student-basketball life at St Anselm college in New Hampshire.

Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and Elias Rodl after he helped Alba Berlin win the 2017 JBBL(U-16) title in Frankfurt Germany

Elias Rodl was born on May 22, 2002 in Berlin Germany. He is the son of Henrik Rodl who won the 1993 NCAA title with North Carolina and won 10 titles with Alba Berlin. He lived in Berlin until he was 8 years old and then moved to Trier as his dad took on the job as TBB Trier head coach. He lived in Trier from ages 8-14. There he played JBBL (u-16). Then he returned back to Berlin and would play JBBL and NBBL as Covid was in full swing He achived a lot of success with Alba Berlin winning back to back JBBL (U-16) titles in 2017 and 2018 playing with guys like Nolan Adekunle, Evans Rapique and Hendrik Warner. I remember the second win well. We had an easy time beating Ludwigsburg in the semi’s despite them having a tough Ariel Huckporti. In the final we played FC Bayern Munich. I remember Munich had Sasha Grant. He had been playing NBBL, but they had him play in the JBBL final which I felt a bit unfair. We were down by 15, but came back and won by 14 points to win the title’, remembered Elias Rodl. His game grew a lot in his time with Alba Berlin especially under the guidance of coach Vladimir Bogojevic. Vladi really helped my game a lot. He helped me learn discipline. He didn’t just teach me to play basketball well, but how to play it the right way’, stressed Elias Rodl. In the first JBBL win, he was teammates with a skinny lanky kid by the name of Franz Wagner who was a #1 NBA draft pick in 2021 and now in his third year with the Orlando Magic. The next season, Wagner helped the Alba Berlin NBBL (U-19) team secure the title. The growth in his game in one season was incredible. He was as big as me in 2017, but in the next year he made a huge growth spurt. He was so talented. After that season there was no stopping him. He developed further where ever he was with Alba Berlin and Michigan and continues to do so in the NBA. He is always calm and collected. He is 210cm and can bring the ball like a point guard. He was a good teammate. He is very confident, but was never arrogant. He is always positive and in a good mood. We were never great freinds, but we understood each other well. I don’t want to ask for too much, but when he is in Boston and plays against the Celtics, he gives me something like 2-4 tickets’, added Elias Rodl. But his ex Alba teammates also have nice memoriers of him. I have very fond memories of our youth days with Alba Berlin. Wehad numerous successful years and pushed each other to become better since we played the same position. I could always count on him off the court. We really did a lot together and had cool memories. We still have contact today which makes me happy’, stated Fraport Skyliner Nolan Adekunle.

Elias Rodl at Saint Anselm in 2023

Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and Elias Rodl at Saint Anselm in November 2023

He would remain with Alba Berlin a few more years playing NBBL and also played with their farm team Lok Bernau. It wasn’t an easy time dealing with Covid, but he made the most out of it. He then came to the decision to cross the pond in 2021 to start a new challenge at St Thomas More a prep school in Connecticut. Some notable basketball alumni that have laced on their sneakers there have been Andre Drummond, Eric Pashall, Yuta Wantanabe and Damion Lee. I had come to a point where I had to make the decision, do I want to just play Pro B or do I want to go to the United States and pursue the student/basketball life’, stressed Elias Rodl. The influx of German basketball players going to high school’s and colleges have been abundant in the last 10 years and the adjustment period isn’t always easy, but he had no problems with that: I had been in the states every summer as a kid. So for me it was more about just being away from home for so long. 5 months away is a long time’, said Elias Rodl. Being able to play at St Thomas More was vital in his preparation for later coming to Saint Anselm. They played the same college rules so that helped me a lot. I was able to get used to the physicality and athleticism’, commented Elias Rodl. He helped the school to 25 wins and were a 6th six seed in the NEPSAC Class AAA Tournament.

Miles Schmidt-Scheuber interviewing 1993 NCAA champion with North Carolina and German basketball legend Henrik Rodl at the 2009 BBL all star game in Mannheim, Germany

In the 2022-2023 season he took a new step and challenge enrolling at St Anselm which is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire about 10 minutes from Manchester. In his first season he played 16 games averaging 3,0ppg in 8,6 minutes per game. It has definately not been an easy ride for him so far. I started the first games, but had some bad games and foot problems. I was out of the rotation after that. I came back near the end of the season and came from the bench averaging about 10 minutes per game. It was a tough freshman year not knowing what to expect. I was up and down, but we did win the league title’, said Elias Rodl. His best scoring games occured in his first 2 games as he hit RMC and Daemen for 8 points a piece. One player that really was by his side in his freshman year was current senior Matt Becker. He is a great defender that is lanky, but very intelligent and can hit the three pointer. He is a calm guy and definately helped me find into the system. He was always very patient with me when I asked for advice’, added Elias Rodl. He plays for ambitious and demanding head coach Keith Dickson who is in his 17th year at Saint Anselm and has won 3 Northeast-10 titles. Coach is very stubborn, but very truthful. I respect his style. He will tell you directly if he likes something or doesn’t. He has been on me to keep improving my game’, stated Elias Rodl. So far this season. It hasn’t begun well for him as he has only collected DNP’s. But he is very ambitious and wants to play. I want to play more and win. You don’t always have to play much tob e successful. My goal ist o win. I try not to set that season goal, but just go day by day and try to get better each day’, warned Elias Rodl. He isn’t only surrounded by Americans, but the team is very international with 2 guys from Australia and one from Ireland. ‘It is cool to play with different nationalities. You get a good taste of what different cultures are about’, said Elias Rodl. He likes the game of German sharp shooter Andi Obst and ist a player that has a a solid mid range game and can score in many ways. Currently he is working most on his defense and ball handling. Defense has never been a strength of mine. I want to become more of a solid defender and just be smart’, warned Elias Rodl. Last season his dad who currently is coaching in Egypt visited him on campus and like so many other father’s of players has been a massive influence in his life on and off the court. He has helped me my whole life with my game. He helped me learn the basics and we also watched a lot of film. He is also a good father’, warned Elais Rodl. It will be interesting to see not only how his game continues to develop in the next years, but when he will finally be a normal rotation player. One thing I won’t forget from my visit to Saint Anselm was our interview. It is very seldom that I conduct interviews with German palyers in english. I remember intervieiwing Maodo Lo in english simply because I wanted to see how good his english was since he also played in the NCAA at Columbia. There are only 2 other Germans on campus. I hardly talk any German anymore’, smiled Elias Rodl. This kid will definatley go his path. In 3 years we will know if he will play professionally or go into the working world with a job possibly in the business world. Until then he will get enriched further by the American culture.