Commitment Catchup – D-II/D-III/NAIA
As we progress into the summer, the few now-graduated members from the Class of 2025 have been making their collegiate plans for next season. We recently caught up with a number of them on their decisions.
For Colby Getting, he'll be headed down to Southern California at Point Loma Nazarene. As one of the few available big men in the class, the 6-foot-10 post from Portland Christian had a number of suitors but believed that San Diego was the best fit for him at the collegiate level.
"I decided on them because they gave me a opportunity to play and on a visit at the school I got to meet some of the staff and just hit it off from there and really felt connected to them," Getting said. "I'm majoring in bisness and they have a really good program there so that just worked out well and also the campus is beautiful. And for the program they have a standard of winning and I really like that coming from PC because we only lost I think 5 games in the last year and my dad always talked about how draining it was to play on a team that didn't win many games."
Portland Christian teammate Joseph Diesel is also headed to the college level, but he's headed to the Midwest. The 6-foot-5 forward had a number of different options after a stellar senior season but whittled everything down and Ozark Christian in Missouri was the choice for him.
"Choosing Ozark for me came down to the experience I was going to have early in my eligibility," Diesel said. "I wanted to make sure I have the opportunity to continue to improve. It's a great Christ-first environment which is a priority for me and I got to go on a visit and see the school and the gym. I had to opportunity to play with the team and talk with coach Lahm as well. All around the visit was great and I really liked playing with the team there. At that level, they compete every year in regional and national tournaments which mean I'll be able to continue competing for championships as well."
Down in the Salem area, Droiy Comstock will be continuing his college career at the NAIA level in Southern California. The North Salem graduate is heading to Hope International in Fullerton and it's a match he believes will be the best fit for him both on and off the court.
"I was down there for a tournament over the summer and my friends and I went to go visit it just for fun," Comstock said. "I love the campus. It's pretty small, but like everyone knows each other, and there's a great community there, great staff, great people, honestly. It's like very sunny, very beautiful, it's in a good place. I would say they're like a freestyle type offense, so they want you to just go out there and play. And they need dogs, and I think I can bring that to the floor, obviously."
While others are headed out of state, Lucas Zook will be staying close to home. The two-time 2A champ at Western Christian considered heading to California at Bioa but when it came down to it, the right spot for him was right in his backyard at Corban.
"I really love the community that I've already experienced from Corban - just from the first few open gyms the guys made me welcome and a part of the team in minutes," Zook said. "I also decided I want to stay close to home so I can still be around friends and family. It was also because of their amazing accounting program which has had every accounting student since Covid have a job opportunity before they are graduated and that's a really nice security blanket to potentially have. And lastly the coaching staff at Corban showed me the plan they have for me as a player and that was just really helpful knowing what I'm supposed to be working on and looking forward too as a player."
Also going to Corban will be Ian Pearson. The hard-nosed point guard ranked second in 5A in assists last season at 6.1 dimes per game and considered a number of factors before settling on the Wrriors.
"I decided based off a couple things - I really liked assistant coach Jason and how he was extremely helpful and quick to answer any question I had," Pearson said. "It seems that he has built a great culture that all of the guys follow/live by and also academically it lined up well with what I wanted to study which is pre-med. Lastly it was a very pretty campus and every person I met there was very happy and nice."
In the Northwest Conference, Pacific has made recruiting in-state a priority and the Boxers will welcome Naoli Besha to the program in 2025-26. The former Centennial standout brings good size and athleticism at 6-foot-6 to the table and he's looking to continue developing his skill set in Forest Grove.
"Pacific was one of the first schools that recruited me, and I just thought Pacific would be a good fit," Besha said. "I like the area, I like the environment, I like the competitiveness that Pacific provides, and it just fits the way I play too. I'm going to compete, play defense, play hard, and we're going to try to get some wins."
Linfield is another program that's built its roster off in-state prospects and it appears that will continue under new coach Elijah Guresh. Lane Garrison missed a lot of his senior season due to injury but the athletic 6-foot-4 swingman from Dayton will still get the opportunity to play college basketball with the Wildcats.
"Well I always wanted to stay near home and play basketball, but Linfield didn't have a coach so it was hard to reach anyone and I was already planning on maybe another school," Garrison said. "But then I finally got a text from the coach and we started talking and I got an offer. I've heard a lot great things about Linfield from people I know and how much they enjoyed it, I wanna study sports management and I've heard some cool things about some of the things you can do there and some of the cool opportunities with sport management through Linfield."
Our congratulations go out to all these student athletes on their decisions.
