OSHKOSH – Growing up, Oshkosh North’s Bryce Ott learned about hard work from his parents. He took it to heart and it’s paid off.
“Work ethic is just something that my dad and my mom just pounded into our head, me and my siblings. Even in middle school and stuff like that, me and my brother were doing football drills and me and my sister were doing basketball drills,” Ott said. “I feel like I’ve been doing extra workouts and extra shots and stuff like that since I’ve been playing basketball just because I didn’t want to be average is what they said.”
In his senior season of high school basketball, Ott was anything but average. He averaged 22.4 points, nine rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game and guided Oshkosh North to a trip to sectionals.
For those reasons, Ott is the 2025-25 Oshkosh, Fond du Lac boys basketball player of the year.
“I think it was a phenomenal season. When you look at his development each year, developing and expanding his role on our team, his basketball game just continued to develop over these four years,” Oshkosh North head coach Brad Weber said.
Ott got off to a different start to his senior year than he did as a junior. He spent the first 17 games of his junior season watching from the bench as he rehabbed from an ankle injury that took place during football season. Once he got back, he was a part of a team that aspired to get to the state tournament, which it did.
As he watched from the bench, a new feeling for him, he started to be able to look at the game in other ways.
“I learned how to be a teammate without playing,” Ott said. “I also just became a lot more basketball smart. I started watching film a lot more throughout my injury and just going through reads without actually being in the play.”
The learning and patience paid off for Ott, who took the reins as Oshkosh North’s go-to guy after Xzavion Mitchell graduated and took his talents to Iowa State University. Ott and Mitchell spent many late nights in the gym after practice to shine on the parquet court at Oshkosh North.
“There’s been some times where we have a 6-8 (p.m.) practice and we don’t leave the gym or get home until 10 o’clock at night and we got school the next morning,” Ott said. “They’re fun though, I gotta admit.”
During his time in high school, Ott balanced being the starting quarterback during the fall and a key player on the hardwood. For him that meant early mornings and late nights, making sure he was taking each sport just as seriously.
It was also noticed by his coaches and peers.
“I’ve had the luxury of watching Bryce play since elementary school and it’s been this way. I’ve always said, when your best player is your hardest worker, everybody else is going to fall in line and everybody else can be held accountable,” Weber said.
Combined with being a hard worker, Ott is also very superstitious.
From the same Jimmy John’s sandwich for lunch, a No. 1 with pickles and a sweet tea on game days, to listening to the same playlist and a pregame snack of beef jerky and a C4 energy drink. Everything is calculated and done with purpose like the workouts he puts himself through.
That combination is what helped him average a near double-double and be a consistent player in one of the state’s top conferences, the Fox Valley Association.
He scored under 15 points in three games all season and scored over 20 points on 19 occasions. He hit 30 or more points three times with a season-high of 35 coming against Appleton West. The cherry on top is his eight double-doubles and more importantly his efficient 64.4 field goal percentage.
“I think the biggest thing with that consistency, how he attacked it is. He is as competitive as a kid as I’ve coached in my 27 years,” Weber said. “He was always locked in. He was always playing with intensity and an urgency. That consistency of never really having a bad game just came from the fact that he always was focused and concentrating because he just loves to compete and wants to win.”
Ott will be playing at the next level at Minnesota State University, Mankato where he’ll compete at the Division 2 level. It’s there that he’ll be able to focus on a single sport.
“I’m pumped for it. I’m pumped to play under a good program and some good coaches and I’m excited to compete at the collegiate level,” Ott said. “They want me to play more of a point-forward instead of a strict forward. It’ll be some ball handling, some more IQ watching film stuff and understanding the next level.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh North’s Bryce Ott is Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Boys Basketball Player of the Year
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
