Cerritos College sophomore forward Cassidy Carrillo, the team's top outside shooter and second leading scorer, has signed a National Letter of Intent with Dixie State University, a Division II school in Utah. Carrillo was a 1st Team All-South Coast Conference South Division selection as a sophomore and averaged 9.6 points a game while connecting on a team-high 50 three-pointers.

"Dixie State was my dream school for the last couple of years," said Carrillo, who will major in nursing. "I remember when I was in high school (St. Paul) and someone from my high school that I admired (Shannon Young) went to Dixie to play volleyball. I looked at their website and thought the campus was beautiful and their gym looked really nice. It was somewhere that I wanted to go and worked really hard at Cerritos to make myself good enough to get there."

Carrillo attracted attention from a large number of schools and took recruiting visits to San Diego Christian College, Biola University, University of La Verne and Whittier College before deciding to officially play for the Red Storm. She was also accepted academically to a variety of other schools.

In her sophomore year, Carrillo scored a career-high 26 points against Victor Valley College, which included five three-pointers and added 20 points in a win over West Hills-Lemoore College. An excellent free throw shooter, Carrillo netted 82% from the charity stripe on the year, which ranked her fourth in the state.

According to Dixie State head coach Jenny Thigpen on their college website, "Cassidy is very energetic and plays with a lot of passion. She will be extremely fun to watch over the next two years. She is a strong threat from the 3-point line and has amazing footwork that is going to help us defensively within the type of system we want to run."

"I really enjoyed my two years with Cerritos and the coaches," added Carrillo. "I think we have the best court in the state and playing for Coach K (Karen Welliver) was a great experience. She taught me a lot about fundamentals and I feel I'm a much better player than when I started here. Going to Dixie State will be an exciting experience and it will allow my family to continue to come to my games. It's only a six-hour drive and I know my parents and family will make that drive as much as they can."

Photos by Daryl Peterson