By Dee Grenert Sports Editor
PLYMOUTH — Randy Davis signed his letter of intent to play basketball at Ball State University, with his mom Janell Birchmeier seated to his left Thursday.
That’s the same mom who helped build Davis an outdoor basketball court when the Plymouth senior star was a sixth grader.
“I set the forms for the court,” Birchmeier said. “I was pretty proud of myself.”
“The 3-point line was in the grass,” Davis added. “We set up three bricks at the top of the key so we knew when we were shooting 3-pointers.”

Clearly the homemade basketball court paid off. Davis, this year’s Mr. Basketball runner up, wrapped up a sparkling four-year career with 1,517 points — good enough for fifth place on Plymouth’s all-time scoring list. The do-everything 5-foot-11 guard averaged 22.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game, while leading the Pilgrims to their fourth straight regional crown.
Of course, he also guided Plymouth to a Class 3A state championship last year, and caught the state’s attention as a freshman in the Pilgrims’ state final classic against Washington.
“I’ve been around Randy since he moved here,” Plymouth boys basketball head coach John Scott said. “It’s nice to see him get to that point of mentally and physically reaching his high potential.
“We were 90-15 in Randy’s four years — I’m sure that’s one of the highest winning percentages in the state,” Scott added. “Randy’s been a big part of all the success. As a coach, you like to see kids reach the high potential they set out to get.”
Birchmeier agreed.
“I think Randy’s been blessed with his talent and he’s used it to reach his potential,” she said. “He’s worked hard since he was a kid for what he’s achieved. He deserves it.”
Davis — along with AAU teammate Jarrod Jones of Michigan City — heads to a Ball State program in rebuilding mode.
The Cardinals finished 6-24 this season under first-year head coach and former Notre Dame player Billy Taylor. Davis said he looks forward to helping Ball State return to its winning ways.
“Probably restoring the program to where it used to be,” Davis said of the most exciting challenge. “I’ll be there with Jarrod Jones. I played AAU with him, so it will be really nice to play with him at Ball State. I’m hopeful that I’ll play right away, but if my playing time’s limited, I’ll be OK with that.”
Davis, who is leaning toward studying criminal justice, also expressed relief at officially signing — even though that meant filling out a mountain of paperwork in the process.
“It’s nuts,” Davis said, with a grin. “I feel a lot of relief. It feels great now that everything’s taken place. I’ve had a lot of contact with Ball State. My classes are coming together. I’ll be starting June 13 — it’s almost here.”
In the meantime, though, Davis will watch with interest Sunday when the Indianapolis Star releases this year’s Indiana All-Star squad. He joined 59 other senior standouts from the state at the Top 60 Workout at Marian College Sunday, all working for a spot on the prestigious team.
The workout, split into two sessions of 30, started with drills, and ended with players divided into four teams that played three 10-minute games against each of the others.
Davis’ group included Mr. Basketball Tyler Zeller of Washington, Marion’s Julius Mays, Crown Point guard Stephen Albrecht, East Chicago Central’s Kawann Short and Jones.
“I thought it went pretty well with the drills,” Davis said of the workout. “I could have played better in the games.”
Indiana game director Pete Smith, who just finished his fifth season as head coach at Guerin Catholic, previously coached at Penn, Noblesville and Carmel. He originally hails from Rochester, which Scott hopes gives Davis another little edge.
“Pete Smith is originally from Rochester,” Scott said. “There’s a little northern Indiana connection there.”
The Indiana All-Star team will play a pair of games against the Kentucky All-Stars in the long-running annual series in June.