Avery VanSickle commits to University of Washington

One of Colorado's top recruits in the Class of 2021 has made her decision on where she will continue her basketball career after high school. [player_tooltip player_id="95125" first="Avery" last="VanSickle"], who just completed her junior season at Regis Jesuit High School, announced via Twitter on Monday night that she has committed to play basketball at the University of Washington. VanSickle’s announcement makes her Colorado’s first 2021 recruit to commit to a Division-I program this year. “Over the fall, I took a few visits and I loved all the schools so much,” VanSickle said. “Washington just kind of felt like a fit and felt like home to me. I liked the culture and the girls were really welcoming, and I’m really excited about playing for the coaches.” https://x.com/averyvansickle/status/1242264969174867974 In VanSickle, the Huskies are getting a dead-eye shooter with a career 3-point shooting average of 39 percent, which has helped the current Raiders junior score 1,016 points in 76 high school games. In 2019-20, VanSickle averaged 16.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 37 percent (62 for 169) from long range. A 5-foot-9 shooting guard, VanSickle led the Raiders (21-5) to a regular season in which they went unbeaten in Colorado and a postseason in which they reached the Great 8 round of the Class 5A state tournament. After graduating dunking sensation Fran Belibi (Stanford) last winter, this season was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Raiders. That wasn’t the case. “Our team was really, really close and we had such good chemistry, which is why I think we went so far,” said VanSickle, who will join Belibi in the Pac-12. “We lost Fran but we were still a really strong team and we had a lot of freshmen come in and step up. We think we could have even gone further but it was a great season.” [caption id="attachment_156350" align="alignright" width="300"] University of Washington athletics[/caption] Despite the winter's success, it was a trying one for VanSickle and her family and it was difficult for her to focus on basketball with her father Bryan VanSickle battling stage 4 melanoma all season long. But Bryan VanSickle’s treatment has reportedly been going well recently and VanSickle’s commitment is uplifting news for the VanSickle family. “Avery, I think, has the ability to go up to Washington to do great things,” Regis Jesuit head coach Carl Mattei said. “To go through everything she has gone through and to get to see her father responding well to the treatment, and to be committed, is so great for her. And for her father to see her commit to playing in college is a special moment.” VanSickle is a 4.2 GPA student and is the 42^nd Division-I commit in Mattai’s 17 years at Regis Jesuit. Her commitment to Washington marks the 17^th straight year that Regis Jesuit girls basketball has had a Division-I commit. She was also considering Texas, Texas Tech, Northwestern and Oklahoma.