Recruiting Update: Benjamin Cheung (2022 Valley Catholic)

<p>When it comes down to college recruiting, finding the best fit both on and off the court is paramount for some young student-athletes. That’s certainly been the case for [player_tooltip player_id="1005083" first="Benjamin" last="Cheung"]. The shifty 6-foot-3, 175-pound wing from Valley Catholic has been ultra-busy with his recruitment these past couple of months, visiting college campuses all over the US while talking to coaches and participating in camps. It’s all starting to paid off as Cheung recently received his first college roster spot offer.</p> <p>Last weekend while on a visit to Occidental, Cheung heard the magic words he’d been waiting to hear. "I was happy and really thankful that a coach took a chance on me," Cheung said. "I know how hard it is to play in college itself and for a coach to say that we’ll offer you a roster spot for next season, me and my dad were extremely happy. We were really proud of the work I put in and it was like everything coming together at once. It just motivates and inspires me to work even harder."</p> <p>Cheung described a detailed trip to Occidental where the coaching staff actually met with him first to present the roster spot offer and then he was able to spend some time with the players and take a tour of campus and talk to the admissions office. He also got a chance to watch the team practice as well.</p> <p>"I really like Occidental," Chueng said. "I want to go into Business, probably Economics and they have a really good Economics program. The coach said that they’ll keep in touch. They’re definitely on the list."</p> <p>Also on Cheung’s list are a bunch of high-academic D-III schools. "I went to camp at the University of Chicago and the coach really wants me to apply and he said that if I get in, I’ll probably be on the team," Cheung said. "I’ve also met with the Pomona-Pitzer coach and that in a normal non-COVID year they would have already offered me, but they have a lot of seniors and aren’t how many spots they are handing out yet."</p> <p>Other schools that Cheung has visited and interacted with the coaching staffs include George Fox, Lewis &amp; Clark, Claremont-McKenna, Washington University St. Louis, and Johns Hopkins. He recently has been in touch with schools such as La Verne, University of Dallas, and Trinity (TX).</p> <p>"The recruiting is so different with every school," Cheung said. "Some schools have a bunch of seniors that have left while other schools have no seniors because everyone got the year back. At the camps I’ve been to, they all like how I shoot the ball well. So right now I’m just waiting to hear back from them."</p> <p>Cheung notes that he’ll be pretty busy applying to many of these schools and seeing where he can get in. While he mentions Claremont-McKenna as a school that really made an impression on him during his visit, that was before his trip to Occidental and the roster spot offer, which obviously has him thinking.</p> <p>"Right now I’m still thinking about if I should commit early to Occidental, which is a possibility but I’m not sure yet," Cheung said. "But part of me wants to play out this year and see how many offers I end up with at the end of the season. We’ll see what happens."</p> <p>Cheung currently ranks as the #29 player in the PrepHoops Oregon Class of 2022 rankings.</p>