College Commitment – Justin Han (2025 Valley Catholic)

Valley Catholic was a testament to team play this season and no one on the team may have embodied that more than Justin Han Justin Han 6'1" | SG Valley Catholic | 2025 State OR . The steady 6-foot senior guard would certainly knock down shots when open but so much of his contributions came from doing a lot of the little things on the basketball floor like make the extra pass, set screens, or get down and dirty on the defensive end. These traits didn't go unnoticed on the recruiting trail by one school, so when Pacific recently came calling with a roster spot offer it was something Han didn't wait long to jump on.

"I had gone on a senior day visit to Pacific earlier and I got the opportunity to walk around campus, learn a little bit more about the programs that they offer and just based off the schooling alone, I really love the internship aspects and they sort of focused on towards your junior and senior year, like really trying to get you spots at different companies or whatever you're trying to work at," Han said. "Just based off of that fact, I thought Pacific was a great school and I'd heard great things about their business program from people that had gone there previously. And then also on that day, I got to meet up with one of the assistant coaches, coach (Brandon) Hellstrom, and I got to meet the other coaches as well and some of the players and all of them treated me just like I was one of them. It was a great environment to be around so, I thought that would be like a great school to go play and do some school at."

From there Han hoped to get a roster spot offer from the Boxers - and as it turns out, he did get one but funny enough his phone had filled up with storage so he never got the text message. Pacific ended up following up with another means of contact - and this time, the senior heard what he wanted to hear. "I got a call from coach Hellstrom and he just told me that they were prepared to offer me a spot on their roster," Han said. "I don't think I committed right on the spot, but I was definitely all in as soon as I heard that."

Han broke down specifically how he believes he'll be a match on the basketball floor and with the program. "I think I'll definitely fit in well there because I know that they tend to have new recruits sort of on their quote-unquote JV team and like sort of earn their way up," Han said. "And you know, that's something that I've had to do for all of my basketball career, earn my way up through the spots. Freshman year I played on JV2, JV, and then I played on varsity, so I'm definitely prepared to do that, move up the spots if the coaches do see fit. And I like the way they play basketball too because I've been to a few of their games and they really have sort of like a team oriented, just pass first, cut screen away, and just try to get the ball moving, which I really like."

Han knows the path to playing on the main Boxers squad will require improvement in all phases of his body and game, and he's prepared for what it will take. "I definitely wanna get stronger, definitely a lot stronger, get quicker, just physically, and try to get up to speed to the college level," Han said. "And then skill wise, definitely focusing probably more on the things that I'm gonna be doing, which most likely will be either catch and shoot or I'm not sure if they would want me to run in the point, but if they did, then I would do a lot of ball healing drills during the summer."

The commitment is the perfect cap to what was a memorable senior season - one where the Valiants met many of the pre-season expectations bestowed upon them. "The past year at Valley, it was actually a fun year," Han said. "There were ups and downs, but everyone on the team, everyone could be out there on the court playing and contributing, like it didn't matter if it was our bench or our starters, because in a lot of our games, sometimes if us, the starters, we didn't play well, the bench would come in and they would do good work and it was a great sort of dynamic that we had."

"I really wish we could have gone to that championship and we could have played Westside just one more time, but you know, sometimes the chips just don't fall your way," Han continued. "But I'm really actually really happy with the season that we had."

Our congratulations go out to Han and his family on his decision.