College Commitment: Ethan Smith (2019 Union)
This spring, there was no shortage of schools interested in adding Ethan Smith to their squad. In particular, the sharp-shooting 6-foot-1, 175-pound guard had pretty much the entire Northwest Conference looking to add him to their recruiting class and he enjoyed learning about and visiting each one of those schools during the year. But as much as Smith enjoyed getting recruited by them, he’s taking a different path as he’s signed to start his college career close to home at Clark College.
“All the D-III schools, I was very interested in them but financially it wouldn’t have worked out for my family,” Smith said. “So I went with the best fit for me overall with Clark. It was the best fit financially, personally, school-wise, and basketball-wise and it was nice that it was pretty close to home too.”
“School-wise, it’s one of the best community colleges around here,” Smith continued. “When I went on a visit around campus it was really eye-opening. It has a really beautiful campus and it will be nice to get my first-year and second-year classes out of the way and basketball-wise, I think we can be really good next year. The eight freshman coming in now were all-league players in high school and I think we can do something really special next year.”
One thing going the JC route that was appealing Smith is the fact he will remain a recruitable athlete. He noted that all of the D-III and NAIA schools that had been recruiting him will remain in contact and will be watching him during his time at Clark. Smith will continue talking to those schools but is open to any other possibilities as well.
“I hope that I can develop my body and get used to the college level,” Smith said. “I want to see if I can get any higher levels than that. I’m hoping to play a little bit of point guard too. If I want to move up to a higher level to either D-II or D-I, then I’m not that tall – you don’t see many 6-foot strictly shooters playing D-I.”
Smith currently ranks as the #77 player in the PrepHoops Washington Class of 2019 rankings.