Trinity’s Courtney Dahlquist commits to Big South champion Campbell

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, July 21, 2020 | 6:00 AM

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The Campbell women’s basketball roster is dotted with players from North Carolina and Virginia down to Florida, fitting for a team in the Big South.

Trinity’s Courtney Dahlquist will add a northern flair.

The 6-foot-3 rising senior committed Monday to Campbell, a Division I program in Buies Creek, N.C. Nicknamed the Camels, Campbell went 21-8 last season and won the Big South regular-season title under coach Ronny Fisher.

Dahlquist visited the campus in early June for an academic tour and enjoyed the “small-town feel.”

“I felt super at home,” she said. “The campus is beautiful and the people are absolutely amazing — everybody, from (the person) who gave me the tour to some of the guys doing construction. They let us in to see the gym. They were like, ‘You can look around. This is going to be your home if you’re going to come here.’”

Visiting her future home was important. The coronavirus pandemic led some rising seniors to commit to colleges after only a virtual tour online, but Dahlquist waited.

“I told all of the schools that were talking with me that I wanted to come visit,” she said. “I can’t spend four years somewhere and not have seen it before I commit.”

Buies Creek is 30 miles south of Raleigh and has around 3,000 residents.

Dahlquist plans to enroll in Campbell’s nursing program. She has family members who work in the medical field and her sister also is studying to become a nurse.

She considered Coastal Carolina, but that school doesn’t have a nursing major. Fairfield and IUP were other options on her list.

The all-section forward averaged 12 points and six rebounds for Trinity, which went 21-5 as the WPIAL Class 5A runner-up. The Hillers were still active in the PIAA quarterfinals when the state tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Likewise, Campbell was the No. 1 seed in the Big South bracket when that conference tournament was shut down. The 11-team league includes Radford, High Point, Hampton, Gardner-Webb, UNC Asheville, Winthrop, Longwood, Presbyterian, USC Upstate and Charleston Southern.

A dead period on the NCAA recruiting calendar has prevented Dahlquist from meeting with her future coaches, but she built a relationship on the phone. She’s excited about their plans for her.

“They definitely like to play fast-paced and run on teams,” Dahlquist said. “Being a post player, they don’t want to just stick me in the post. They’re going to let me stretch the floor and shoot the 3. If I have a mismatch, I can take people off the drive or use screens.

“They’re definitely letting me be very versatile.”

North Carolina here I come!!!! @WPABruinsAAU @Twism44 @Moneyy13 @GoCamelsWBB @coachkmcconnell pic.twitter.com/UvVQpnHubw

— Courtney (@CourtDahlquist) July 20, 2020