Submitted photo – Dawson Vallerga (right) pictured at his recent letter signing ceremony at CR with Arcata teammate Luke Moxon.

By Ray Hamill — The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball program recently said goodbye to a standout player, while welcoming another into the fold.

Sophomore Brandon Lucas, who played a pivotal role in helping to lead the CR men to a fourth conference championship in five seasons this past winter, is moving on and has committed his future to San Francisco State.

He is the second player from the 2024/25 team to commit to a Division-II program, following in the footsteps of Mason Mottashed, who will play for Western Colorado.

But the spring hasn’t been all about players moving on and new head coach Justin Claus, who was an assistant with the team for the past six seasons, has officially added his first local recruit.

Arcata senior Dawson Vallerga recently signed his letter of intent to play for the local community college program.

“We’re excited about Dawson,” Claus said. “He’s developed a lot. He always had a flair and confidence and a craftiness to his game.”

Vallerga also is a winner.

The senior standout was a three-year varsity player with the Tigers and helped lead the program to a Big 5 title in all three seasons, as well as a Dick Niclai tournament championship as a junior.

And Claus knows as well as anyone what he can bring to Redwoods, first working with him at Trey City when he was just a sixth grader.

But Vallerga’s talents as a guard/wing is just part of what the new head coach likes about him.

“We spend a lot of time on the road together and it’s really important to have guys who are good basketball players but also fun to hang out with,” Claus said. “And he’s a really good dude. That’s really important to make this work.

“But beyond that, there’s just a craftiness to his game that proves he’s played a lot of basketball.”

Lucas, meanwhile, will be missed.

The outgoing sophomore, who first played at CR in the winter of 2019/20 before taking a few years off, often found a way to lift his team to victory with some inspirational performances.

“I think Brandon is the type of player that any coach at any level would want to have,” Claus said of the Santa Rosa native who played for Montgomery High before joining CR. “At any point he can just change a game completely with his shooting.

“At any point he can get hot in a game and flip it on its side.”

That’s exactly what Lucas did in a key showdown against Shasta this past season, hitting an incredible 10 3-pointers and turning in what then head coach Ryan Bisio described as a “legendary shooting performance.”

“Shasta was playing well, but it’s hard to overcome someone playing like that,” Claus said.

Submitted photo – Brandon Lucas and coaches Justin Claus, left, and Ryan Bisio at his recent letter signing ceremony.

But that’s not all he brought to the table for CR.

“I think he did a really good job becoming more well rounded during his time at CR,” Claus said. “But nothing surpasses the days when he just catches fire and there’s not much anyone can do about it.”

In addition to Vallerga, the new coach will also welcome back former McKinleyville Panther Cody Whitmer for next season after he sat out 2024/25, as well as adding guard Jackson Bluhm out of Crescent Valley High in Corvallis, Oregon and Argonaut High forward/wing Mitchell McMahon.

With the recent success of the local community college program, there continues to be plenty of interest from H-DNL players, although with so many returning players on hand space on the roster is limited.

Claus says, however, that he is still looking to add one more big to round out his roster.