DESERE’E DOTY
By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sportspaper.org
The one thing that has been overlooked in the brilliant soccer career of Crosspoint Academy senior Desere’e Doty is that she not only is a multiple sport athlete – basketball, track and field, volleyball – but also comes from a very athletic family.
In short, the sports gene pool runs deep in the Doty household.
Father Derrin Doty, an All-State Insurance agent with an office in Bremerton and another in Port Orchard, played basketball and baseball at Sequim High School. He would play college baseball at the University of Washington and then play professionally in the minor leagues in the California Angeles organization.
Mother Pamela Doty played fastpitch softball in southern California and when she transferred to Sequim played slowpitch softball and basketball for the Sequim Wolves.
Derrin Jr., 14, is a real good pitcher in baseball and as an eighth-grader is almost six-feet tall. The youngest Doty, Thunder, 10, is a good basketball player who also plays soccer. “He’s like a deer, really quick, and is an all-around athlete,” says dad.
So the template for athletics in the Doty family will not be finished with Desere’e, who has a soccer scholarship to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Grand Canyon is an NCAA Division I school that competes in most sports, including soccer, in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The Antelopes finished the 2014 season 8-9-1, but were 7-3 in the WAC, winning seven of their last eight soccer matches, including the last four.
Desere’e Doty is one of this state’s top all-time scorers. She scored state record 53 goals this season to help Crosspoint Academy (16-2-1) win a second straight 1B/2B championship and finished her high school career with 153 goals, which is second in the state record book to Melissa Bennett, who scored 166 for Seattle Christian.
“She has done very well,” says Derrin Doty, who not only is her father but coached the Crosspoint Academy soccer team. She has beaten her dad (with the number of sports she is good at).
“But I don’t think she will be a pro baseball player,” Dad adds, jokingly.
Daughter might have also followed dad to the University of Washington. The Huskies offered, but the Huskies didn’t explain how much the scholarship would be worth.
“So she called them and turned them down,” says dad. “Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona and a lot of NAIA schools were interested but they could not give a lot of money. She is on full scholarship (to Grand Canyon); all we have to do is play for food.”
Klahowya’s McKenzie Cook also is going to Grand Canyon and Desere’e hopes they will be able to room together once they get to the school at the end of June. They are being asked to attend school so early and take a few summer classes so they can get acclimated to not only the school but to the weather (it’s blazing hot in July and August in the Valley of the Sun).
Before the five-foot-six Doty can move on to Arizona, there are the other two sports that will keep her busy – basketball this winter and track and field this spring. She has been a point guard in the past for Crosspoint, but this year she will play more of a wing or shooting guard on a team that should do pretty well.
For all the success Doty has had in soccer that sport and basketball are nearly equal in importance to her. When asked which sport comes first, she answers, “I don’t know. I really love basketball, too. It’s a tough call, but I have played soccer longer and it’s probably my better sport. But I don’t know, basketball and soccer are pretty close.”
Derrin Doty says of his daughter, “She probably loves basketball more than soccer. She could have been better in basketball than soccer if she had dedicated herself to it.”
Doty began playing soccer when she was four and when she was eight she began playing premier soccer with FC Crush, which has morphed into Kitsap Alliance. She did play select basketball starting in the sixth grade with Puget Sound Elite, which was coached by Yvonne Brittain. She also has practiced with Megan Murray’s Total Package Hoops.
She started playing volleyball at Crosspoint her junior year and, of course, runs in the school’s track problem where last year she went to state in four events – 200, 400, triple jump and the 1600 relay. She placed 7th in the 400 with a time of 1:04.27 (she ran 1.:02.1 in the preliminaries).
Doty also holds the school record for the triple jump at 31-07.5.
She also has played for the Washington EPD (Elite Player Development) team that is part of the Seattle Sounders. They have played against other EPD state teams in California and Arizona. Doty was also picked up by a Spokane select team that needed an extra player for a tournament in Las Vegas (“We tied every game, so we didn’t lose”).
Her competitive genes are constantly stroked by the games of one-on-one basketball, especially against her dad, at home. The family home also includes a ping-pong table and she holds her own against dad and now has to ward off Derrin Junior, who has gotten a lot better. Thunder is waiting in the wings to test her skills.
“I’ve always been competitive when I was younger, even in board games,” she says. “Me and my dad would play PIG (in basketball) and he would beat me all the time. When I got better he would start using trick bank shots, because he wants to win. That only makes me more competitive, makes me work harder in sports.
“I just feel blessed. It’s really fun. We all enjoy the same thing, to have family competition at home. I’m always doing something, and most of my friends are in sports too, so that helps.”
Don’t get the wrong expression. She’s not just any old sports jock. She also is an excellent student in the classroom, and carries a 3.8 grade-point average.
Doty’s experience isn’t just limited to sports. She also likes music (is in the choir at Crosspoint) and art, although to be honest it’s sports that move her forward.
Doty’s decision to go to Grand Canyon came about fairly easy once she visited the school. She went this past summer, looked over the campus and talked to the soccer coach and just, “Felt like it was the place to be for me. Its good size, is the higher level (D-1), but is not too big of a school. And I love Arizona.”
It will be interesting in the next few years to see Doty’s soccer progression. In the meantime, back home her younger brothers will likely keep the Doty name in the public spotlight for some time to come.