Hard work pays off for Vintage’s Jackson Corley after signing with California State University Monterey Bay

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By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

For Jackson Corley, a lot of work has gone into trying to play basketball at the college level. The hard work has also led to plenty of awards in the last few seasons. 

It’s because of this that Corley’s basketball journey will now take him to California State University Monterey Bay for the next four years where he will play for the Otters. 

“It’s something that I’ve dreamed about since I was a little kid, playing college basketball,” Corley said of signing with Monterey Bay. “Finally putting that pen to paper is just, it’s an unbeatable feeling. It’s awesome.”

The awards come after years of hard work done by Corley. During the NLI signing ceremony on Friday afternoon on the Vintage campus, Vintage head coach Ben Gongora stated that Corley is an extremely hard worker with an example of him getting home from a recent trip to Italy and shooting in the gym at Healthquest on California Avenue just hours after getting off the plane. 

However, the next part of his journey brought him to Vintage High School as a transfer. He transferred to the North Napa campus for the 2020-21 school year but didn’t sept onto the court for his first game with the Crushers until April 15th when they played the first game after the season was pushed back due to the pandemic. 

In his junior season, Corley was primarily used off the bench. In the spring of 2021, he averaged 13.7 points per game on 48% shooting with 5.2 rebounds a game, and 2.1 assists per game. Part of the reason why Corley was used off the bench was due to the fact that the Crushers had offensive weapons such as Logan Nothmann and Josh McCormick who were in their senior seasons and it would be more of a way to ease him into the new system. 

That season also saw the Crushers go 13-2 and 10-1 in Vine Valley Athletic League play to win the league title. Though there was no champion awarded in the spring 2021 season, Vintage finished with the best league record. 

So once this most recent season came around, it was known that Corley would be taking on a much larger role by sliding into the point guard role and having to lead the offense as to what they’re running on every possession. 

In his senior campaign, Corley was simply fantastic. He averaged 19.4 points per game on 41% shooting from the field, 6.2 rebounds per game, 2.9 assists per game, and 2.8 steals per game. He also shot 68% from the free-throw line on the year as well. 

The best part of Corley’s game as a senior was the fact that he showed up when the moment was at its biggest. 

An example of this came in the first Big Game of the season on the road where Corley scored 34 points, 9 rebounds, a block, and a steal. 

“Napa High was chanting overrated, saying you’re not good,” Gongora pointed out. “He came out and dropped I think 34 on them and he didn’t crumble. He didn’t cry. He didn’t say ‘Oh coach, the stands are making fun of me.’ That just fueled him.” 

Then there was the game when the Crushers visited Justin-Siena and Corley was a one-man wrecking ball on the floor. In that game, he finished with a 26-point, 6 steals, and 3 rebound efforts. At one point in the game, Corley had scored more points than his opponents had all together. 

The Crushers won both games and went on to finish with a 17-9 record on the season with a 7-5 VVAL mark, which led them to host their first playoff game in 20 years. Vintage was extremely hot to end the regular season as they won their final five league contest to finish second in the VVAL.  

“I think what I remember most is just the relationships that I built with Gongora, with the players on my team,” Corley said of his senior season. “It definitely helps when the team’s playing well, it helps morale helps chemistry but I think the biggest thing that I remember is the relationship that I had with my teammates.”

Corley was also named first-team All-Vine Valley Athletic League last season as well. 

Before getting to Vintage, Corley played for Prolific Prep of Napa Christian, a National prep team that travels all over the country. 

Corley said Prolific Prep played an instrumental part in helping him grow as a basketball player. 

“It was super important,” Corley said of his two-year stint with the Crew. “It was an amazing opportunity to play super high-level basketball surrounded by super high-level basketball players and it’s something that I’ve I won’t forget and something that showed me what I needed to do to get to the next level.”

At Prolific Prep, Corley was buried deep in the bench. But what that gave him was the chance to practice with some of the best players in the country such as Jalen Green, Nimari Burnett, Jordan Pope, and Coleman Hawkins. Corley won a Grind Session championship with the Crew in 2020.  

“I didn’t know Jackson two years ago, never heard of him,” Gongora pointed out. “Then when I met him, I had really no expectations so he had a clean slate coming in. The thing that stood out immediately was his work ethic. He’s in the gym in the morning before school. He’s in the gym after school. He has private coaches. He’s constantly trying to hone his craft and improve his skill set and that really has been starting to separate him from his peers. He’s improved tremendously, even though he was a talented player. When he came in, he really was able to dial things in his senior year and I know that work ethic is gonna allow him to continue to have success at the next level.”

All of that has led him to California State University Monterey Bay, where he plans to study business over the next four years. Last season, the Otters had a solid year going 13-9 with a California Collegiate Athletic Association record of 12-4. They had marquee conference wins over California State University San Marcos who won the CCAA Tournament at Lumberjack Arena and Chico State who advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division 2 tournament. The Otters also made the six-team CCAA tournament after finishing with the fourth-best conference record in the regular season. 

“There’s a lot of good, good talent in this league, a lot of good competition,” Corley added of playing in the CCAA. “I’m very confident with the class that is coming in with me at Monterey and the players that are already there, that we’re gonna have a really good season this year. I’m just excited to get out there and compete against the great talent.”

Last season, the league was a three-team race between San Marcos, Chico State, and California State University San Bernadino who won the regular-season crown. It was also the first year sports returned after there was no season in 2020-21 due to the pandemic. 

The CCAA spans from Humboldt County to San Diego County and consists of 12 schools. Corley will make visits to Sonoma and San Francisco State during conference play, which will be the closest for Napans to go watch him play.