{"id":269776,"date":"2026-04-15T23:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T23:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:02:08","slug":"cif-player-of-the-year-dax-hall-chooses-new-mexico-on-signing-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/269776\/","title":{"rendered":"CIF Player of the Year Dax Hall chooses New Mexico on signing day"},"content":{"rendered":"

CIF San Diego Section Boys Basketball Player of the Year Dax Hall<\/a> and Tavid Johnson, who finished second to Hall in a close vote, made their college choices on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Both involve the University of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Hall, from Santa Fe Christian, committed to the Lobos.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who had made an early verbal commitment to New Mexico, has decided not to skip his final high school season and will return to Francis Parker for his senior year.<\/p>\n

Hall, a guard, averaged 27.0 points and 7.3 assists per game during his senior season at Santa Fe Christian. He posted a career-high 42 points against Cathedral Catholic and had nine 30-point games and 16 20-point efforts. He finished his high school career with 1,957 points.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s commitment could help keep his brother Jake at New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Jake Hall, who played at Carlsbad High School, is the reigning Mountain West Freshman of the Year after averaging 16.4 points and 3.2 rebounds a game for the Lobos while shooting 43.8% from behind the 3-point arc. He entered the NCAA transfer portal last week, with power programs like Duke, North Carolina, Illinois, UConn and Indiana showing interest. Hall has not ruled out a return to UNM.<\/p>\n

The Hall brothers are both guards, but they possess different skill sets.<\/p>\n

St. Augustine coach Mike Haupt said earlier this school year that the two are \u201ccompletely different players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJake is a classic 3-point shooter, a guy who can hurt you from any spot on the floor,\u201d Haupt said. \u201cDax is a slasher, a guy who can score, but can also create shots for his teammates. He\u2019s more of a point guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SOLANASOLANA BEACH, CA \u2013 February 25, 2026: Francis Parker\u2019s Tavid Johnson scores with a layup in the second half of the CIF Open Division semifinal against Santa Fe Christian at Santa Fe Christian High School in Solana Beach on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Johnson, a broad-shouldered 6-foot-4 guard, was widely rumored to be passing up his senior high school season in order to enroll at New Mexico. Johnson verbally committed to the Lobos over offers from USC, Cal, Florida State, Washington and UC San Diego.<\/p>\n

Parker coach Mason Biddle called Johnson\u2019s return \u201camazing news, for sure.\u201d Johnson averaged 22.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game as a junior.<\/p>\n

Other San Diego Section players committed to colleges on Wednesday:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Despite a coaching change, Rancho Buena Vista first-team All-CIF player CJ Aldrich remains committed to Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 St. Augustine shooting guard Lincoln Grogan will play at Westmont.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chase Rogowski of Torrey Pines, a 6-7 forward, is headed to MIT. Teammate Tevaris Green, a first-team All-CIF player, is still choosing between offers from West Coast Conference and Big West schools.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mission Hills wing Clay Grebing has committed to Point Loma Nazarene.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Carlsbad guard Briggs Young is headed to Northwest Nazarene.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Army-Navy Academy guard Yanler Ramos will play at Southern Nazarene, while 6-7 Ivan Marchenko will be a full-scholarship player at New Mexico Military Institute.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mission Hills guard Logan Vergenz is headed to Rocky Mountain College.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Francis Parker guard Ezekiel Walker, a first-team All-CIF player, is still visiting colleges.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Victory Christian coach Will Gray said all six seniors \u2014 DJ Humphries, Jayden Gray, Isaiah Owens, Chato Garcia, Ben Cordova and Kaerym Araiza \u2014 will play in college, but it may take a few weeks for them to make final decisions.<\/p>\n

\"WestviewWestview High\u2019s Sarah Heyn shoots against Francis Parker High during the CIF Open Division championship at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. Francis Parker defeated Westview 66-50. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nHeyn among girls basketball stars picking colleges<\/p>\n

First-team All-CIF guard Sarah Heyn<\/a> is headed to UC Santa Barbara after averaging 18.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game as a senior at Westview. The Gauchos are led by former Cal State San Marcos coach Renee Jimenez.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Paula Zumstein, a first-team All-CIF forward from Montgomery, will play at Cal State San Marcos.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kaitlyn Raagas, a second-team All-CIF guard from Francis Parker, is headed to the United States Naval Academy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Keira Heinricy, a second-team All-CIF guard from El Capitan<\/a>, is headed to Hawaii Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Malissa McKoy, a second-team All-CIF guard from Lincoln, will play at Lane College in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mission Hills is sending three players to colleges. Guard HC Harding is headed to Vanguard, while guard Kendall Nguyen is headed to UC Merced and guard\/forward Izzy Medina will play at College of Idaho.<\/p>\n

Don Norcross contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CIF San Diego Section Boys Basketball Player of the Year Dax Hall and Tavid Johnson, who finished second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[117407,56254,74,76,75,117408,117406],"class_list":["post-269776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-dax-hall","tag-jake-hall","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-santa-fe-christian","tag-tavid-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}