HARLAN -- Jacob Schaben became the latest Harlan Community senior student-athlete to sign a national letter of intent on Wednesday, finalizing his plans to play basketball at Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska.

In attending Peru State this fall, Jacob will follow in the foot steps of his parents, Bryce and Carrie Schaben of rural Defiance, as well as HCHS coaches Kelly Juhl and Bill Hosack.

"They told me it was a good school so I thought I'd check it out. I went down there and I liked it," said Schaben, who plans to major in Natural Resources Environmental Science. "I'm going to lift (weights) this summer and try to put some pounds on before I go."

The 6-foot-6 Schaben, who also considered Dana College, took advantage of his first extensive varsity playing time this past season to garner second-team, All-Hawkeye 10 Conference honors. He was also chosen to play in the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil All-Star Game this weekend.

Schaben averaged 7.8 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds for the Cyclones, who placed fourth at the Class 3-A State Tournament, won the Hawkeye 10 Conference title and finished 23-4 overall. Schaben shot 58.4 percent from the field and blocked 28 shots. He is expected to play both the 4 and 5 post positions at Peru State.

"He's very fundamental and very coachable, and has a very big basketball IQ - that's what we liked about him," said Peru State head coach Troy Katen.

The Bobcats are an NAIA Division II program that competes in the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, which had three teams reach the Elite Eight of this year's national tournament, including the champion and runner-up. Using mostly transfer players in his first year at Peru State, Katen's team finished 1-29 overall. The goal now is to build up the program with quality freshman recruits from southeast Nebraska, the Omaha and Lincoln areas and western Iowa.

Katen noted that the Bobcats played seven of this year's 32 national tournament qualifiers at least once.

"We usually have three to four schools out of our seven-team conference that are ranked in the top 25. It's a very tough conference and a very tough non-conference with where we're located at," said Katen, adding that Schaben will see playing time right away as a freshman.

"We're making a very big effort this year to bring in mostly freshmen to help our program and get that four-year base built up," he said.

Schaben has been a multi-sport athlete during his time at HCHS, participating in four years of football, basketball and soccer.