Cuesta College has 19 athletes headed to 4-year schools

At the time of her graduation from Morro Bay High in 2013, Jerrica Crosby believed her basketball career had written its final chapter in a loss to nationally ranked Windward in the CIF-Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs.

“I was done,” she said. “I was just going to focus on my academics because I’m trying to get into med school.”

Then came a phone call. And another. And another.

All from Cuesta College and head coach Ron Barba. All trying to bring her back to the hardwood.

Two years later, her career has blossomed to the point she was one of 19 Cougars honored at a ceremony Wednesday for moving on to play at a four-year school, and one of eight who will do so on scholarship.

“Seriously, the last week before school started I signed up to play,” said Crosby, who leaves Cuesta as the school’s all-time leading shot blocker and will play at Sonoma State. “I just thank God that I did.

“It’s the experience of Cuesta that pushed me to play.”

Another local prep basketball product, Kaylee Williams from Mission Prep, joined Crosby at the ceremony, signing on with Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont.

“The team aspect, from my first year to this year, it’s just cool to see how we’ve progressed,” said Williams, who was named to the Western State Conference first team twice. “All the memories from the crazy games, coming back from 20 points down, just the cool memories I’ll take with me.”

The Cougars men’s hoops team also had two players sign scholarships at the Division 2 level.

Rafael Casanova, who emerged as a bench player his freshman year to being the WSC player of the year as a sophomore, will head to Florida Tech, while teammate Tayler Thompson will travel the complete opposite direction to play at Alaska-Anchorage.

“Both these guys played limited minutes their freshmen years,” assistant coach Alex Engel said. “They didn’t play a lot, but they supported the team, they stuck with the team and they helped us win a championship.

“We threw them into the fire this season, we made them captains, and they did a great job with it.”

A quartet of men’s track and field standouts rounded out the eight scholarship athletes, led by 2015 Cuesta Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year Connor Fisher, who will run at Chico State.

Atascadero High graduate and WSC champion in the 800-meter race, Robby Hixson, will head to Stanislaus State while jumper Dez Smith (Chadron State) and hurdler Calvin Herman (Humboldt State) also agreed to scholarships.

Cal Poly will welcome three Cuesta athletes in 1,500 runner Brandon Messerly, women’s soccer player Liv Montion and wrestler Jeffrey Sanchez.

Rachel Gruetzmacher, the 2015 Cuesta Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year and an Atascadero native, is heading to play water polo at Long Beach State, where she will be joined by Paso Robles High graduate and goalkeeper Marti-Rae Grois.

Michael Mannon (Humboldt State) and Max Clark (Chico State) are headed elsewhere after spending time with Cuesta’s track and field program.

Alex Kuykendall (UC Santa Barbara) and Lukas Lastra (San Jose State) will continue their men’s water polo careers.

Wrestlers Connor Pollock (San Francisco State) and Joe Else (Montana) will grapple for two more years at the collegiate level.

“I’m just excited to get to keep playing,” Crosby said. “I know I only have a few more years left, so I just want to make the most of it.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Cuesta College has 19 athletes headed to 4-year schools."