Zillah guard Dekker Van De Graaf will continue his basketball career at Oregon Tech of the NAIA’s Cascade Collegiate Conference.

His commitment to the Klamath Falls, Ore., school was announced Tuesday on social media.

Van De Graaf is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Leopards program, and a two-time SCAC MVP, winning the award after his sophomore and junior seasons. He was named the WIBCA Class 1A Player of the Year last month.

In his four seasons in Zillah, the Leopards won top-four trophies each year, including a championship in 2024. In the final seconds of the title game, Van De Graaf followed his own miss with a running banker to lift Zillah to a 47-45 victory against Annie Wright.

Van De Graaf’s senior season was slowed in December with an ankle injury that nagged him at times the rest of the season.

Still, he was a first-team all-conference selection, averaging nearly 20 points.

In a semifinal victory against Royal, he scored 34 points on 12-for-22 shooting and pulled down 12 rebounds and added three assists and two blocked shots.

“Best player to put on a Zillah jersey,” Leopards coach Mario Mengarelli said. “Can’t wait to follow his journey through his collegiate career.”

Van De Graaf continues a modest pipeline of Zillah players heading to Klamath Falls to play for the Owls.

Zillah girls coach Joel Yellow Owl played his junior and senior seasons at Oregon Tech. In his final season, the first for  Justin Parnell as Owls coach,  he averaged more than 20 points and was a first-team all-conference and second-team NAIA All-America selection.

Former Leopards standout guard Scotty Burge also played for the Owls, capping his four year OTI career by averaging seven points, three rebounds and 2.6 assists his senior season, his third as a starter. Oregon Tech was the national runner-up in Burge's senior year.

Mengarelli joked that Yellow Owl and Burge recruited Van De Graaf harder than Coach Parnell.

“Zillah guys are a perfect fit for Oregon Tech’s system,” Yellow Owl said. “It won’t be long until we’re hearing him make some more noise down there.”

Bierlink headed to Whitworth

Two-time CWAC scoring champion Pierce Bierlink of Quincy has committed to play at Whitworth of the Division III Northwest Conference.

Bierlink averaged more than 32 points this season, He poured in a school and conference record 64 points in a Feb. 3 double-overtime loss to Toppenish. The total was the third highest in state history.

He scored a program-best 2,224 points and was the Caribou Trail League MVP as a sophomore, and first-team all-CWAC the past two seasons.