College Commitment: Evan Dirksen (2019 Columbia River HS)
Photo Credit: TJ Mullinax, for The Columbian
As they say, the early bird catches the worm. As the months passed between the end of the season into the summer, Evan Dirksen was hearing from a whole host of college programs. But one school got in touch with the all-around 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard from Columbia River in the spring and in the end, that’s what helped secure the commitment from Dirksen this past week.
On Tuesday, Dirksen announced on Twitter that he had committed to sign with Menlo College. “I went down there and played with their guys, toured the campus, and I played well enough so that coaches really liked me and offered me a scholarship,” Dirksen said. “I really like it down there – Atherton is a really beautiful area. I like their play style – there’s not much structure but it’s not complete open gym freestyle. I like how they play up-tempo with a lot of shots and a lot of freedom.”
Menlo made the connection with Dirksen early as he visited there in the spring. The coaches watched him play in Las Vegas and then he went to camp in September and not long after the Oaks offered a scholarship in early October, Dirksen accepted. An all-around kind of contibutor on the basketball floor, he feels he’ll fit right in.
“I think I’m a positionless player,” Dirksen said. “I feel like I can come in that if they want me to play forward, I can play forward, if they want me to play guard I’ll play guard, if they want me to play point guard I’ll play point guard. And being one of the better players on my team, I had the number one defender on me at their camp and have been working on different ways of getting my shot off.”
Prior to his commitment, Dirksen noted that a whole host of various NCAA Division II, Division III, and other NAIA programs had shown interest. But with his decision out of the way, he can now turn his attention to his senior year.
“Our team has a lot of returners and many of them played heavy minutes, so we’re looking forward to see what we can do this year,” Dirksen said. “Individually I want to make first team in our league, but most importantly I want to do everything I can to help us make it to state.”