Otto Schellhammer isn’t just one in a million. He’s one in 41.2 million.
The 14-year-old from Plum is the creator of the last perfect bracket standing after the opening weekend of the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments — from more than 40 million entries across all the major contests.
The NCAA has tracked seven of the largest contests for years, according to the Associated Press. This year, they totaled about 36 million men’s entries and 5.2 million on the women’s side.
Otto’s secret? He went with the vibes.
Otto’s not a very big fan of basketball. He doesn’t really watch it or keep up with the sport in general.
He just picked the teams he liked.
“I know nothing about basketball,” Otto said. “My picks were random.”
The first round, he just picked the higher seed.
“From there, I — this is going to sound dumb — I just picked who I felt would win that game,” Otto said. “I didn’t look at rankings or anything.”
He created two brackets. One for the men’s tournament, without nearly as much success, and one for the women’s.
“We do it as a family every year, just in our own little pool,” Otto said.
This is the first year they included a women’s bracket, and the first year there’s no money on the family competition.
Otto has correctly picked the first 48 women’s games in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, leaving him just 15 away from perfection.
He has Texas taking it all on April 5 in Phoenix, which is an unpopular choice among social media critics, Otto’s mother, Amy Schellhammer, said.
“My Elite 8 and my Final Four picks and even my championship pick, I mean, it’s a long shot that this stays perfect,” Otto said.
There were four other perfect brackets hanging in with Otto’s until Notre Dame’s upset over Ohio State on Monday.
The next thing he knew, his bracket was posted on the likes of Draft Kings, ESPN and other organizations’ social media pages.
Having made the bracket through an ESPN account, the sport media giant reached out to Otto via email to see if he’d be open to interviews with different media outlets.
“Our phone started blowing up, and emails,” Amy said. “We got thrown into this.”
One to usually shy away from the limelight, Otto has been interviewed by national news organizations and made appearances on television. He’s also received hundreds of follow requests on his private Instagram account.
“It’s just been surreal,” Otto said. “These (organizations) I’ve watched on TV, read about, are reaching out.”
Amy said her son has always been an “old soul” with a good head on his shoulders.
“During all this, I know he can handle it because he’s Otto,” she said. “He’s always been like this.”
Despite having a basketball hoop in their driveway for a friendly game, the Schellhammers are admittedly not a basketball family. Amy played in high school. Otto’s father, Mike, played until about the eighth grade. His little brothers, Arnie, 11, and Mick, 8, play in the driveway.
Otto has a promising future in lacrosse, with his eyes set on playing in college.
There’s not really anything on the line for Otto to finish with a perfect bracket aside from bragging rights. He’s just enjoying his success so far.
“This is just awesome,” he said.
An eighth grader at Plum Middle School, Otto has been subject to some teasing at the hands of his classmates. It’s all in good fun, Otto said. His friends are the first to comment on every social media post. He would just rather not be in the spotlight.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Otto said.
After initially being unimpressed by Otto’s bracket, Mick has been enjoying his big brother’s newfound popularity. Their mother said Mick asked his elementary school teacher to play Otto’s segment of Inside Edition for his class. Arnie was excited for Otto from the start.
“Whenever I get home from school, it’s all they want to talk about,” Otto said.
During this once-in-a-lifetime experience, the middle schooler has learned a few things. The first being while he prefers to be in the background, he can handle himself in the spotlight.
“I really don’t like the spotlight. I mean, this is awesome, but seeing myself out there, I don’t know,” Otto said. “It’s a challenge I have to overcome.”
The second? Don’t read comments on a social media post. While most of the people paying attention to Otto’s story are cheering him on, Amy said, there are some people leaving negative comments under posts about Otto’s bracket.
The third is that he can always lean on his family.
“I can always come back to them if I’m not having the best day,” Otto said. “They always have my back.”