17 year old, Charlotte Dagnino, better known as Charlie, has made quite an impact in our school and the athletics program. She made such an impact that she will be moving on to play basketball in college. Charlie is planning to attend Grossmont College in El Cajon, California. She had 4 other offers from San Diego Mesa, Palomar College, San Diego City, and Miracosta College; all were junior colleges from the San Diego area. When aske why she chose Grossmont over all the others is because it’s a building program and “I will have a better opportunity to improve and grow skills,” Charlie stated. The coach was also a major factor in choosing colleges and for Charlie, the coach at Grossmont is good at what he does, super supportive of the game, improving gameplay and skills for each player, and most supportive for future endeavors. While having offers for both softball and basketball, she ended up choosing basketball because she is more passionate about basketball and enjoys that it’s more fast paced and exciting.
Charlie is going to college to play on their team and plans on studying either sports medicine and kinesiology or sports journalism. Her dad was a trainer and athletic director, and he’s the reason she is so motivated. She’s been surrounded by that environment since a very young age she and it persuaded her to pursue what she is passionate about. Her family and coaches had a huge impact on her and has always been supportive.
In college she will have the opportunity to play with some of the people that she played against in high school. She is excited to see how they perform together when playing on the same team and see how a new the new team dynamics develop and influence how they play.
She couldn’t have gotten where she is now without having goals to follow. Charlie always wants to aim her achievements high and be better than the next person, that has provided a drive to keep going. Having the right mindset and focus is also key when trying to achieve goals. “Surround yourself with the right people, have your priorities straight, but set limits on what you want to achieve” she says. Off season training definitely helped build her skills on and off the court. For basketball, they trained all summer and fall, so managing that with school and other sports taught responsibility and time management. Charlie said, “At PV we all know that we only have limited students, so we’re going to have a lot of multi-sport athletes that go around. It connects us as students and as a community, not only in the classroom, but Palo Verde as a whole.”
While she has come so far and is going on to do great things, not everything has always been easy. Between super high expectations and having to watch her dad get sick, it was a huge struggle mentally. It made it hard to keep focus on what needed to get done. When she was asked how she overcame something like that, Charlie said, “Going through something like that at a young age really matures you, it helps you to see what life is and to pursue everything you have when you have the chance.”
There were a lot of things that she did to prepare for her sports to get a spot on a college team. Doing multiple sports, joining clubs, and involving yourself with campus life really helped her to connect with people more and be more comfortable with taking charge. It gave her the opportunity to learn a lot of life skills. Being captain on multiple sports teams since sophomore year and having important roles in clubs helped to push towards leadership roles as well.
High school really impacted her a lot, especially in a small community like Blythe. Watching the different groups slowly come into the school over the years was something that really stood out to her most. “It’s crazy how some groups of people can impact something that’s major in our school. It may not seem like a huge deal, but it is a lot of work the students put towards and it’s not something that you see everyday,” she says. For example, basketball went from winning 3 championships to 5 in a row. Athletics have come a long way and it’s the students that have made it so possible. The community itself is also a huge part of it. Some of Charlie’s favorite things that she’ll miss are the small town activities, like dance and get-togethers put on by the people in our community because everyone comes together to throw those events. Even our sports wouldn’t thrive without the people. “It’s amazing to see people come to drive 4 hours to support our teams and fill the stands while some people won’t bother going who are right there,” she explains. Although, she is glad to be leaving the drama that comes with living in a small town behind while she’s in college.
Charlie closed out the interview be letting us know, “PV has made me the person I am today, the whole community and my family is to thank for making me who I am.”
