Signing day: Brett Kingma is officially an Oregon Duck
Published 4:47 pm Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Three years ago Brett Kingma stood in the Jackson High School library and happily watched his older sister cement her plans to play Pac-10 college basketball.
Today, Kingma returned to the same room in Mill Creek where his sister, Kristi Kingma, signed with the Washington Huskies in 2007. He took a huge step — the biggest one yet — toward realizing his own Pac-10 hoops dreams.
By signing and submitting an NCAA National Letter of Intent, Jackson High senior Brett Kingma officially became an Oregon Duck.
“When I committed it was a relief,” said Kingma, who considered numerous Division-I scholarship offers before picking Oregon over Brigham Young University and Arizona State University in late September, “but (after a verbal commitment) you never really know — things can happen. But now that I’ve signed and it’s official, it feels good to have it over with.”
Surrounded by several dozen supporters (family, friends, coaches and teachers), Kingma signed at 2:18 p.m. Wearing an Oregon sweatshirt, he was all smiles before and after the signing, which took place on the first day of the NCAA early signing period for several sports, including basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball.
Kingma, a 6-foot-1 guard, is the first Jackson High athlete to accept a Pac-10 men’s basketball scholarship, Jackson coach Steve Johnson said. With his signing out of the way, Kingma can focus on the upcoming high school season. Practice starts on Monday.
“I want to try to be a leader and do what it takes for us to win a state championship,” said Kingma, the season leading scorer on Jackson’s 2009-2010 team that reached the Class 4A state title game.
Kingma grew up idolizing former Oregon guard Luke Ridnour and said he hopes to eventually make a similar impact for the Ducks, who are guided by first-year head coach Dana Altman.
“They want me to be a scoring point guard and be versatile,” Kingma said. “They play with four guards, so it will be fun.”
Check out The Herald on Thursday (in print and online) for more details about local signings.
