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When going through the Cerritos College women's basketball record book, the name Monet Andrews appears in almost every category. Arguably the most consistent player in Falcon history, Andrews is the only two-time 1st Team All-State selection and State Player of the Year to wear a Cerritos College women's basketball uniform. She helped lead the program to a South Coast Conference championship in her freshman season (1999-2000) and a pair of state tournament appearances. They advanced to the quarterfinals in her freshman year, while her sophomore year ended with the team just two wins away from the program's first state title.

At the time of her graduation, Andrews ranked in the top 10 in Career Points (1,188), Career Rebounds (532), Career Assists (233) and Career Blocks (81). The Swiss Army Knife of basketball, Andrews still ranks second in school history for most points in a season (651) and was just shy of being only the fourth player in school history to average over 20 points a game, as she accounted for 19.7 points a game as a freshman. With all of those accolades, Andrews scored over 30 points just once in her career, as she poured in 37 points against El Camino College as a freshman, which was a school record at the time.

The younger sister of former Falcon men's basketball players Kelly and Damon, the youngest of four children almost didn't play for Cerritos after graduating from Cerritos High. Andrews signed early with the University of New Mexico, but returned home after the first semester and without playing for the Lobos. Courted by several programs after her sophomore season with the Falcons, Andrews signed with San Jose State University, which turned out to be a bit of a reunion for her. While with the Spartans, Andrews was teammates with friends she had known for years and several she has played against since her youth. 

In her one season with San Jose State, Andrews helped the team to a 17-11 record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. A short semi-pro career, along with some coaching followed Andrews after her collegiate career came to an end.

Below is a Q&A with Monet Andrews:

What made you decide to attend Cerritos College after graduating from Cerritos High School? Were you recruited by four-year schools?
I actually was a bounceback (4-2-4 transfer). Early signing period my senior year at Cerritos High, I signed my National Letter of Intent with the University of New Mexico. I was recruited by Wake Forrest, Cal State Northridge, New Mexico State, San Diego State, Arizona, Arizona State and several other DI schools. I stayed at UNM for the first semester Fall 1998 and came back home. I was homesick and had bitten off more than I could chew. We did conditioning at Cerritos High, not really weights, and I was not ready for the severity of conditioning at a Division I school. Spring 1999 I started my first semester at Cerritos College. I was unable to play since I was not there for the fall semester. So, I just went to school. (Head coach) Karen (Welliver) came recruiting my senior year in high school and told me that if things didn't work out at New Mexico, that I would always be welcome to play for her at Cerritos College.

What do you remember about the college when you first arrived? How was your overall experience at Cerritos College?
When I first arrived, everyone was welcoming. I thought I was going to be judged for failing at Division I, but that was not the case. I already knew several of the people from my high school and from surrounding high schools that I had played against. At first, it was hard because my bestie, Nicole Bryant, tore her ACL playing for Cerritos College, so she was at home and not on campus with me. I remember (Falcon men's basketball player) Lemar Gayle walked up to me and told me he knew who I was and that he remembered me from high school. We didn't play against Long Beach Jordan High, so I was trying to remember where he and I crossed paths. Turns out he constantly would read stats in the newspaper and we both were part of the Los Angeles Times All-Area team our senior year. So, he introduced me around and it made everything go pretty smoothly. Overall, I enjoyed my time at Cerritos College. Good people, teammates, coaches, and staff. Karen has had me speak to some of her teams years later when I have come to games. I always tell them if Cerritos College was a four-year school, I definitely would have stayed and enjoyed the college experience there.

In both of your seasons with the Falcons, you helped the team advance to the State Tournament. What do you remember about the atmosphere of the tournament?
My first year, I didn't know what to expect. Only post-season play I had experienced at that point was the CIF Tournament in high school. Depending on rankings, you either played at your gym or your opponent's gym. I had never played in a neutral location. I was nervous. The first game we played Foothill College and sadly we lost. I just couldn't get out the gate it seemed. You took a picture that game of me taking a mid-range jumper that ended up being the cover of our schedule pamphlet for the next year. People joked that I probably missed that jumper where I could actually reply, "Nope. That's about the only one I made that game", lol. My second year I knew what I was getting into and as a result, we made it to the semis before running out of gas. Pressure seemed at a high, looking into the stands and seeing all the college/university recruiters. Not only me trying to get another scholarship but hopefully my teammates getting something out of it, too.

You had two of the most consistent seasons in school history and as a result, you ranked in the Top 10 in every category at the time you transferred. What was your focus each and every game that helped you consistently perform?
I really don't know. It came very naturally. So, the games that I performed poorly in, I didn't understand what was going on and how to fix it. I just wanted to prove that I wasn't a failure at the game I loved since coming back from a Division I school. Part of the main reason I didn't make it at UNM was the conditioning portion of it. So Karen really dug in and helped me get my freshman year deemed a red-shirt year. I played in like the last two minutes of the first exhibition game at New Mexico and they were trying to take my entire year. She made sure they didn't and she made sure I got my grades in order so that I could play. Once the year started, she definitely made sure I got my butt in shape. I remember going to the fitness center after practice for conditioning. I went straight to an elliptical. She told me no and pointed me straight to the Stairmaster. Everything that she did to help me get better and how much she believed in me made it easy to not want to let her or the team down. I remember a game at the Orange Coast College Tournament where my shot was not falling. I tried closer range and was even bricking lay-ups. So I stopped shooting. She noticed, called a timeout, and pulled me to the side. She told me, "who told you to stop shooting?" I thought I was hurting the team. She told me that she had given me the green light and not to let up. Her confidence in me meant everything. I think the two and half years I was at Cerritos College we got into one argument and I almost quit my first year. We ironed it out, though. Just a little misunderstanding. I never believed I could or wanted to coach until after learning from her.

You're the younger sister of two brothers who also played basketball at Cerritos College – Kelly (pictured, left) and Damon (pictured, right) – who are 15 and 14 years, respectively older than you. What was it like growing up with basketball brothers? Did they help you with your game, and if so, how?
Kelly was born February of 1966, Damon December, 1967, and me January, 1980. I remember watching Damon at Cerritos College a couple times and then us traveling to one of his games at Eastern Washington University. I remember going to games in San Diego at USIU (United States International University) to see Kelly play. Strangely enough I don't remember watching him play. I played under the bleachers and in the foyer with the coach's kids that were my age. We would run all over the court after the games and take a couple of shots waiting on Kelly to come out the locker room. Once Damon went away to college, he didn't come back home except to visit here and there. While I was at San Jose State, Damon was working for Fox Sports in Chicago. He had the Midwest report and the Bay Area (California) report. He once sent a local camera crew to one of our home games. My cousin noticed that the camera crew was only getting up and filming when I was in the game. I got so nervous, the only footage they got was of me blocking someone's shot. I made it on Fox Sports though. Kelly came back and stayed for a while. There was a hoop in our backyard that I would play on. It was in-between our house and the neighbor's house. There was a strip of concrete around the size of the key. On each side there were trees and bushes. So really no where to maneuver. My brother Kelly would come out and play one-on-one with me. He would literally stand at the rim and goaltend all my shots! Then, as he noticed I was getting better, he would pass and rebound for me. Showing me proper footwork. He drew me a free throw line and made me practice my free throws. He wouldn't let me leave until I made so many in a row. We would play horse and have shooting competitions. They also went to Cerritos High and the two coaches they had back then were still at the high school coaching and teaching. Same thing at Cerritos College. Coach (Dean) Ackland was an assistant to Coach (Jack) Bogdanovich back then and Coach A later became Karen's assistant my second year. They compared my game to my brother Kelly since we were both athletic and left handed.

After your sophomore season when you were named the State's Co-Player of the Year and Southern California Player of the Year, you chose to transfer to San Jose State University. What was it about the school that made you decide on them? Were you being recruited by any other schools?
I knew and had played with and against players that were there on the team. On my official visit to SJSU I was supposes to be there Saturday, Sunday, and depart Monday. When I was picked up from the airport, the assistant coach told me another recruit was there overlapping my time. He started telling me about her and turns out I had played against her since we were in junior high and we played in an All-Star game together our senior year in high school. She had bounced back just like I had. We both decided to sign and she became my roommate. We had a two-bedroom apartment on south campus where we shared a room. The other room was occupied by a teammate that played at LA Southwest College before transferring to SJSU and the other I'd known since high school (she went to Bellflower High School). The coaching staff and team felt like family like it did with Karen and the girls at Cerritos College. The coaching staff at UNM was not a good fit for me so I made sure I met the entire staff and felt them out. I have two first cousins that I am close with, one lived in San Jose and the other not too far in Fremont. When I couldn't come home for winter holidays, I still had family to be around. As a matter of fact, my cousin in Fremont would come to all the home games with her two young daughters being our ball girls. At New Mexico I was homesick, so I wanted to stay closer to home. Not too close though where my parents could just pop up on me, lol.

I got other offers to go Division I and Division II. I went on another official visit to (first one out of high school) to Cal State Northridge. I also went on an official visit to Oregon State. When I came back from my trip to Corvalis, I was in the weight room on campus at Cerritos and so was former Falcon and NFL player, TJ Houshmandzadeh who played at Oregon State. I remember asking him how he survived in Corvalis, Oregon. There was no city life. It was nothing but the school and green trees everywhere. On my recruiting trip they took me to the only movie theater (only showed old films) and bowling. He told me that he needed that to stay out of trouble. I wanted to know that if I wanted to go out and have a good time that there was someplace for me to go. I went on an unofficial visit to a Cal Poly Pomona game. I had a friend that was an All-American there and she told me about their conditioning/workouts and I knew with all those rolling hills on their campus that I wasn't going to make it, lol. San Jose State was the right fight for me.

How did Cerritos College prepare you to transfer to the next level, both academically and athletically?
It definitely helped me on the athletic side by showing me the type of people/program I needed around me that made me thrive. It also helped me academically to be around those positive people. By the time I left for San Jose State, I had made the Dean's List and gotten my AA degree. I looked at the coaching staffs of the schools that were interested in me for qualities that Karen, (assistant coach) Babita (Singh), and Coach A showed me. Karen was like a mentor and I found that in Coach Janice Richard (RIP) and her staff at San Jose State.

Since your collegiate basketball career came to an end, what have you been doing? Where are you working?|
I've played semi-pro at the Women's Drew League and another defunct league (I forgot what it was called) where I was the number one draft pick. I coached Frosh-Soph girls at Santa Ana Valley for a year under varsity head coach Jason Flowers (who later became the women's basketball head coach at Cal State Northridge). I was then the co-head coach of the JV girls team at Artesia High (I think James Harden was a junior or senior there at the time). I would bring the playpen/travel yard and fill it with toys and (her son) Evan would be on the sideline at practices and games I was playing in. Since 2008 I have been doing administrative work. First in dispatch at Schaeffer Ambulance in Santa Ana, then for the City of Long Beach and after the move to Eastvale I started volunteering with a non-profit called Starting Over, Inc. They needed help and my admin background was just what they needed. They offer transitional housing in Los Angeles and Riverside Counties. They now have a total of eight houses that they run. They offer legal services since the Executive Director and Co-Founder is a lawyer. So now that SOI has grown and have received grants, it was finally able to hire and pay staff. So I am a Legal Assistant to the Executive Director of the non-profit in her private practice and part of a two-person admin team for the non-profit. I also coached the Eastvale Bulls (my son's team) traveling team from 2015 – 2019 when the team disbanded.

Your son Evan is almost 16 years old. Does he know about your basketball playing days?
Evan (below, left with Monet) is in his junior year at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale. We run into some of my former coaches, refs that have refereed my games over the years, former teammates, opponents and guy players that know my game at these tournaments I was coaching in, and they tell him about me back in the day. A lot of people from college and high school have moved to Riverside County to raise their families that tell him about me all the time, as well. He was willing to have Nicole Bryant (like an Aunt to him) show him some moves when he was younger. He didn't want me to show him and she asked him why he didn't want me to show him some moves since I was a better player than she was. He'll brag and have my back when it comes to other people saying they can outshoot or beat me. He thinks he can beat me shooting. I've brought him up to Cerritos and he'' seen my picture and talked to you guys and Karen, so I think he knows.

Is he a basketball player like you? If so, have you given him any advice or pointers on improving his game?
He's been playing since he was like two with the Little Tikes hoop in the living room. In our household, we are big Lakers fans, so he watched and tried imitating Kobe Bryant. He writes with his right hand but he shoots with his left. When he would watch games/highlights on TV he didn't understand that Kobe was actually shooting with his right hand, so he mirrored his moves making Evan shoot with his left hand. His first travel team was when he was six. A friend's brother had started a program and my friend told me to take him over. The brother thought Evan was too young and wouldn't be able to hang since it was an 8U team. He got out there while they were doing dribbling drills and the coach came over to me and said, "never mind, he's good!" His next travel team, I had the pleasure of being asked to coach. He did not like that. I'm very fundamental, so I critique and give advice to all the kids. He thought I was just picking on him. It got to the point where I would let the other coaches talk to him. I then stepped into parent role and would talk to him after games about his performance like my Dad did when I was coming up. Eastvale only has one high school and the enrollment is almost 5,000 kids. With that many kids, he unfortunately didn't make the basketball team his freshman year. He didn't get a physical in time for tryouts his tenth grade year, and now COVID has ruined his junior year. He has good handles and loves that James Harden step back three-pointer. We ran into former Cerritos Falcon player Marcus Outland at a tournament and he said Evan's game is like Kyle Anderson; "Slow-Mo". I actually took Evan to Open Gym Premier since our travel team disbanded right before COVID shut everything down. Open Gym Premier is former Falcon Miguel Bennett's program. Some of the coaches are also former Falcon's - Cedric Lusk and Antoine Smith.

What's the best advice you've given him, either basketball-related or about life?
I told him he needed to work on his skills. He needed to be an all-around player. Scoring, rebounding, steals, assist, blocks, smart on offense and defense. Don't just get put into one category. The players that are only good for one thing are the players that don't stand out to recruits and coaches. Most importantly, I told him to be confident in himself but to be humble at the same time. I can't stand these loud and cocky players!

Only makes sense for a mom who is the most versatile player in Cerritos College women's basketball history to advise her son to be proficient at all aspects of the game.