Dallas Washington is Taking His Talents to Cal State Long Beach

By: Dylan Tehada

UPBasketball veteran, Dallas Washington, made a huge announcement this past week as he will be taking his talents to California State University, Long Beach during the 2025 collegiate basketball season. Washington has crafted quite the basketball resume in his young career, earning multiple accolades as a junior at Santa Margarita High School and even being ranked #99 in his class. As Washington gears up for his senior season at Santa Margarita High School, Washington looks to continue elevating his game and preparing for his future role playing in Long Beach.

Washington has been hooping for as long as he can remember. Growing up in a basketball household where his dad coached AAU ball for years, Washington began falling in love with the game at the early age of three years old. From the moment he picked up a basketball, he found a strong desire to continue elevating his skillset and reaching new heights as he played in more competitive leagues. Year over year he would play in the age group above his own age and rose to the occasion for every team he played on. 

Washington committed to St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California as he embarked on his high school basketball journey. Shortly after, he transferred to Santa Margarita High School where he made First Team All-Conference and Second Team All-Section in his junior year. After his dominant junior year, he was ranked #99 in his class and started garnering interest from collegiate programs.

Throughout his recruitment process, Washington sought to join a team with a strong winning culture that not only could he grow his game in, but that he could also help foster a winning legacy with. Long Beach State fit the bill in terms of being a program that could foster Washington’s own skill development and simultaneously establish a winning culture from the ground up.

Newly hired Head Coach, Chris Acker, will be looking to take his success from his role at San Diego State to Long Beach State. During his time in San Diego, Acker led the charge for a dominant San Diego State team that went on multiple NCAA tournament runs and dominated the Mountain West Conference year over year. Washington is fired up to be part of the new culture that Acker will establish at Long Beach State and is looking forward to developing under his new coach’s leadership.

“[Coach Acker] has coached high level players and the staff is really good at developing their players and pushing them out of their comfort zone, so that's what really intrigued me,” Washington said. “I hope to continue to grow the new culture that's going to be at Long Beach, because it's a full new staff and a full new team and I'm excited to get there and be a big contributing part of that winning culture.”

Throughout Washington’s basketball career, one place he could always rely on to get a good workout in and hone his skills was at the UPB facility. Ever since he was in fifth grade, Washington has been training with Coach Packie Turner and the rest of the UPBasketball staff and has seen his game grow leaps and bounds since then. Even though his physical skill set has developed immensely over the years, one area that UPB has helped him hone in particular is the mental side of the game. 

“The biggest thing that I got out of training at UPB was after a workout. We would sit down on the floor and close our eyes and envision ourselves doing the moves we just worked on, doing the workout, and imagining in our head doing the workout at full speed in game. I was continuing to not only get better at basketball on the court, but mentally off the court,” Washington said.

Throughout his career Washington has maintained high levels of production on every team he has been a part of. A key aspect of his game that has yielded so much success is his work ethic. Day in and day out Washington has shown his love and passion for the game by how hard he works and how committed he is to improving his game in every facet. According to Washington, hard work ethic is the key for any young hooper to realize their potential is unlimited.

“If you can envision success, really push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and work as hard as you can every time you're on the court, you're going to be able to succeed and do everything you want,” Washington said.

We are super excited to see what’s in store for Washington during his final year at Santa Margarita High School and in the not so distant future at Long Beach State. We wish him the best of luck in this upcoming season and are looking forward to see him continue sharing his love and passion for hoops!