Maffei, Harrison sign to compete at next level

Two Carson High seniors — basketball and soccer standout Andrea Maffei and swimmer Michelle Harrison — have decided to pursue athletic careers at the community college level.

Maffei plans on attending College of the Siskiyous in Weed, Calif., while Harrison is attending Iowa Lakes Community College.

Maffei said she first visited Siskyous more than a year ago, and her main interest was for basketball. Since then, the school has started a women’s soccer program.

“I enjoyed visiting the basketball coach (Tom Powers), and he texted me during the season asking me how my season was going. It felt good to be wanted.

“The basketball coach told the soccer coach about me. I wanted to continue my soccer career because I’ve spent so many years training and playing. The coach at Siskiyous (Ed Kephart) asked for some footage and was supposed to talk to Greg (Lehman, CHS soccer coach).”

Both Powers and Kephart liked Maffei’s attitude.

“We met Andrea a couple of years ago,” Powers said. “She works hard and seems extremely eager to learn. We are looking forward to next season with her.”

“We talked for a little bit and I did a bit of research on her soccer ability,” Kephart said. “She seems like a good fit. What I’m most interested in about Andrea is her drive and attitude. She really wants to compete and do well. All to often we get recruits who are amazing athletes without the discipline and desire to put the work in. Andrea seems like she is willing to work hard and wants to do well. I’m excited to see how she does at the college level.”

Maffei said soccer is played in the fall and basketball in the winter. The basketball program, however, starts training the first day of school. She admitted she’s concerned about playing two sports and carrying 16 units. She said both coaches seem willing to work around each other’s schedule.

“I’ve been training hard; been doing a lot of cross-fit,” Maffei said.

The CHS senior said she will be a backline player for Siskiyous. It should be a seamless transition save for the speed of the game. Maffei was part of a back-line defense that performed well the last two years in the Sierra League.

“Andrea is a skilled player, and she can attack out of the back,” CHS coach Greg Lehman said. “She could play in the middle as well. I think she will do well there.”

In terms of basketball, Maffei said she’s working on ballhandling. At 5-3, she will definitely have to play more point guard than anything else at the community college level.

Harrison said Iowa Lakes reached out to her.

“I’d actually never heard of them (the school) before,” Harrison said. “I’m going there because I feel it’s the right choice for me. I wanted to go to a smaller school, and I only plan on swimming for two more years. I’ve always wanted to swim in college, but I’ve had a couple of injuries that set me back. I’ve only been competitively swimming for four years, so I was worried nobody would recruit me but I was able to push through and I’m happy with my decision.

“I have family living in Canada and I have an older sister who goes to school in Iowa.”

Harrison said she wasn’t sure what events she would be swimming at Iowa Lakes, but she believed she would be swimming the 200 and 500 free events.

“I am excited to have Michelle coming to swim for Iowa Lakes,” said interim head coach Miranda Anderson. “Since day one of recruiting her, I could tell that she is enthusiastic about continuing her swimming career and has a genuine love for the sport. Those two things make the best athletes to coach. I think that she will bring the positivity that our team needs and hopefully her enthusiasm and love for swimming will rub off on her teammates during the hard part of the season when we are training before the sun comes up and still in the pool when it is pitch black out at night.

“I have no doubt that she will train hard and drop time potentially earning herself a spot on some of our A relays and competing for points at our national meet. I am hoping she can come in and fill some of our mid-distance freestyle spots but with her attitude, I know she will be willing and ready to swim any event asked of her. Last season the women’s team placed eighth at nationals. With Michelle and the other recruits coming to Iowa Lakes this August I am confident that we will place higher this upcoming season.”