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Navajo Prep’s Coleman headed to Cochise College in Ariz.

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Coleman coming off NM all-star basketball game

FARMINGTON – Jasmine Coleman of Navajo Prep School is the latest area high school girls basketball player to commit to playing at the next level.

Rainy Crisp, head girls basketball and volleyball coach, and interim athletic director at Prep, said Coleman entertained several scholarship offers from myriad schools, but settled on Cochise College in Arizona.

“She was a very good player for us in her four years at Prep,” Crisp said. “She will be missed. She is an excellent basketball and volleyball player, and is an even better person.”

Coleman, who graduated about three weeks ago, played forward on the basketball team and was a middle hitter for the Lady Eagles’ volleyball team.

“She played both and was equally good in volleyball,” Crisp said. “She is a very good athlete. Always in the right place at the right time in both sports.”

Playing in the competitive Division 1-3A alongside Tohatchi and Crownpoint high schools, Coleman averaged 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals per game in basketball, and helped Prep to an overall 13-16, 6-2 record and a state playoff appearance.

Prep ended the volleyball season 16-3, 7-1, boasting one of the best teams in New Mexico with Coleman and the left-handed outside hitter and jumping-jack Diamond Jones — a one-two punch for the Lady Eagles.

“I will miss Navajo Prep,” Coleman said. “I will miss my teachers and friends.”

Coleman averaged six kills and three blocks per game as a member of the Navajo Prep volleyball team. She said she chose Cochise over bigger schools in Colorado and Texas, and added that she missed the initial signing deadline for the Lady Apaches, but “is fully committed to Cochise and ready to get going.”

Coleman played in last weekend’s New Mexico 3A all-star game, where she scored 10 points for the North in a win over the South. She said playing in her first New Mexico all-star game was extra special, considering she sat out the 2015 basketball season with an injury.

“It’s really a special feeling to play in the all-star game,” Coleman said. “With the injury, I had to take things easy and slow.”

Last year, Navajo Prep lost to Eunice 3-0 in the state volleyball playoffs, and lost to Cuba 56-46 in the girls state 3A basketball playoffs. According to Crisp, Coleman played well in that game.

Coleman said she leaves for Cochise in August and is excited about meeting new friends and competing in basketball at a whole different level.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” she said. “I’m ready.”

Cochise College is a two-year institution with campuses in Douglas and Sierra Vista, Arizona. The school is noted for having its own school-owned airport, as well as an aviation program for students. The Lady Apaches ended the 2015-2016 basketball season with a 23-7 record — the third best in school history.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent