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DOUGLAS — Graduation season for the Cochise College men’s basketball team was one full of departures both sad and hopeful.
Just over a week ago, walk-on freshman Josh Armendariz was killed in a one-car accident while driving home to El Paso, Texas.
Cochise head coach Jerry Carrillo, his staff and several Cochise players attended.
“His parents asked for him to be buried in his Cochise uniform, so I drove to the funeral home (the day before the service) and delivered it,” Carrillo said. “A lot of players were able to attend. The family liked that.”
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Departures not so sad include the moving on of the team’s five sophomores, who all graduated with two-year degrees.
Alex White signed to play at Division I Drake University in Iowa. Frank Borden signed with Division I American University in Washington, D.C.
A.J. Adkins is headed to Division II Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Ia. Tyrone Crawford signed with Wayland Baptist University in Texas. Crawford is the fifth Cochise player to move on to Wayland Baptist. Finally, Justin Hopper is deciding between several schools, including Doane College in Nebraska and Sol Ross University in Texas.
Freshmen not returning include Yahosh Bonner, whom Carrillo said was offered a scholarship by Dixie College in Utah, but may simply move to New York or Salt Lake City instead.
Thomas Helgeland, a freshman from Buena High School in Sierra Vista, is foregoing his sophomore year of junior college ball to transfer to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M.
As for the next season’s class, Carrillo has the benefit of having had several redshirted and grayshirted players already on campus last spring.
Included in that group are Al Graham, a 6-foot-3, 205-pounder from Lanier High School in Jackson, Miss., and Mike Martin, a 6-foot-5 forward from Deset View High School in
Tucson, by way of Saddlebrooke Community College in San Diego, Calif.
Gatod Galwak, who graduated from Catalina High School in Tucson last December, spent the spring semester at Cochise. Carrillo considers the 6-foot-7 Sudanese refugee with a 7-foot wingspan, to be a “project” player.
Carrillo also has added to the mix a pair of junior college transfer players in Steve White, a Milwaukee native who spent last season at Olney Central College in Illinois, where at 6-foot-7 he averaged 14 points and nine rebounds per game.
The other transfer is Thomas Schumpert, a 6-foot point guard from Milwaukee, Wisc. who played at Kennedy King Junior College in Chicago.
A possible third transfer is Shannon Doctor, a Buena High graduate of 2005, who played quite a bit in his freshman year at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, N.M.
“We’re just waiting on his grades,” Carrillo said. “I like his talent, but we’re pretty good on the perimeter right now. Dynile Forbes has a chance to be really good. They’re kind of similar type of players.”
Forbes, a returning sophomore, led the Apaches in scoring last season from his shooting guard slot.
Doctor’s high school teammate, Schuyler Witt, returns for his sophomore season.
“We’re looking for positive things from him next season,” Carrillo said.
Cochise’s top high school recruit so far is 6-foot-4 guard Jason West from Deset Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nev., where he was a First-Team All-State selection.
“He’s a very good athlete, very bouncy,” Carrillo said of West. “He can bolster our style of play. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t have a (clearly defined) position.”
Mike Helton, who played two years ago for the Apaches before sitting out last season, will rejoin the team.
“We need another post guy and we’d like to find a couple more players,” Carrillo said. “But right now we’re just chilling, seeing what we’ve got. Sometimes you find some of your best players in the summer.”
Carrillo said former standouts Phil Dupree, Peter Okwalinga, Tim Smith, Tony Hansbro and Forbes were summer signings.
