It just seemed to happen at the right place, at the right time. He was working out at Marshall Middle School with a couple of other men, when Seward Head Coach Bryan Zollinger came in and saw him play basketball. That was five years ago, when Quentin Purtue, Seward Saints forward player for the men’s basketball team, received his chance to become more for himself, and his family.

Purtue, is currently a sophomore attending Seward County, and plans on continuing playing the sport after graduation.

“I’m just exploring right now, and there are colleges looking at me too, but I’m just overall exploring,” Purtue said.

From Wichita, Purtue started his Saints career starting 28 games out of 29, scoring 14 points every 40 minutes, and having an overall of 238 points.

Purtue in his spare time enjoys hanging out with his friends, and states to not play basketball outside of the court. He is a videogamer, and loves to listen to all kinds of music.

“I like being around people, I don’t like being by myself. Being alone is boring, and I like to talk and, yeah, there are times when you need your away time, but if I don’t need that time, I won’t take it. I really do enjoy company,” Purtue said.

Being so close to his teammates, there’s just no time to be alone. One of Purtue’s proudest moments as a Saints athlete is being back-to- back conference champs, winning against Hutch.

One of Purtue’s fondest dreams is to go overseas and explore, see new things and play basketball. That being a dream, it doesn’t stop him from achieving great things, because he does plan on attending a D-I college and becoming someone more.

Behind every great ambition, is a great motivation. That motivating person that keeps Purtue going is his 3-year-old daughter, Eryn. “She’s my No. 1 fan, the reason behind it all,” he said.

“Having Eryn has been the biggest impact in my life. It has changed me into the man that I am today,” he said. During that time that Purtue was waiting for his daughter to be born, Coach Zollinger kept in touch with Purtue, to get his diploma, to get things straight and to be ready to pursue his career at Seward. It was a long wait, but Purtue reassures that it was worth it all.

Purtue is a family-oriented guy and does express his excitement as he talks about his family coming down to see him play for his home games. “My grandpa is my biggest influence. He’s just been there all my life, and time is getting shorter and shorter,” Purtue said.

One thing that is really astounding about Purtue’s story about coming to Seward is that he never played basketball all throughout his high school years. He always played baseball, and only baseball.

It wasn’t his favorite sport growing up, it was baseball, it still is. “Basketball is just something that came about. I like basketball, but I love baseball,” Purtue said.

Though basketball is what is getting Purtue through schooling, he chose to go ahead and do it, for his daughter. In order to give her a better life, he had to have priorities, and schooling was one of them.

“If the opportunity came right now to go play for baseball, for sure I would go. Without hesitation,” Purtue said.

But Seward has really changed Purtue’s life, his teammates and the college itself, a life-changing experience that this player will continue forward. “I made the decision to come here because in the wait of having my daughter, I had to change. Change my life, man up, get stuff done and it was all for my daughter. All of this, I did it for her. For Eryn.”