PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL: BD's Cassidy Trotter picks Michigan Tech – WiscNews
Like a lot of teenagers, Cassidy Trotter dreamed of going to college somewhere far away. Somewhere entirely new. Somewhere exciting, with endless possibilities.
And that dream was close to being realized when Lehigh University came calling, trying to recruit the star player on Beaver Dam’s prep girls basketball team to join the Mountain Hawks’ NCAA Division I women’s basketball program.
Say yes, and Trotter would be headed to out to continue her basketball and academic careers in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, just an hour and a half west of New York City.
It was an enticing option, indeed.
“But then once I visited there,” she said, “it didn’t seem like as much of a fit as Michigan Tech.”
And that’s how it is that Trotter settled on the Huskies, making a verbal commitment last month to join the Huskies’ program a year from now. She can make it official by signing an NCAA National Letter of Intent anytime during the NCAA’s early signing period, which this year runs from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16.
“Five and half hours (away from home) is good enough,” the senior-to-be joked of heading north to Houghton, Michigan, instead of east to the outskirts of the Big Apple.
When Trotter does move on, she’ll be continuing a basketball career that already has seen her claim last year’s Player of the Year award in the Little Ten Conference and also receive honorable mention all-state accolades in Division 2 from the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association.
Trotter received both awards after turning in a well-rounded junior season, which included a Beaver Dam single-season record 95 steals (surpassing the previous mark of 89 set by Cady Roedl in 2010-2011 as well as averages of 13.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
And those stats spearheaded a deep rotation for the Golden Beavers, who won their seventh straight LTC championship with a perfect 14-0 record before losing in overtime of the D2 sectional finals to end the year with a 24-2 record that matched the program’s best-ever.
Trotter said the primary force in her decision between Lehigh and Michigan Tech was academics.
“I’m really big into school,” she said. “So that was a main point.”
But as it relates to her saying Tech felt like a better fit than Lehigh, she said specifically that she “really liked the coaches” on the Huskies’ staff and that “their team is really good too, so hopefully I can come in and play right away and be a factor – and win a lot.”
Michigan Tech, which is a DII program, finished tied for second in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) last year with a 17-5 record and was 19-8 overall. The Huskies have 18 NCAA tournament appearances and 13 GLIAC championships – with the most recent time for both having happened in 2014-15, when they won the GLIAC with a 20-2 record and finished 28-3 after losing in the NCAA regional semifinals.
It’s an exciting time for Trotter, no doubt.
But for now, she’s happy that her decision is made and she can simply focus on getting better as a basketball player and hopefully helping what figures on being a very talented BD team this winter make it to the state tournament for the third time ever and first time since 2010.
“It takes a lot more pressure off me,” Trotter said of her college decision. “It’s all settled now, so it’s nice.”
