Not only is she talented in basketball, but Candice Wiggins is a Renaissance woman in other sports as well.
This past year she placed first in the long jump at the San Diego Section Division II championships. She also guided La Jolla Country Day to a Division IV runner-up finish in volleyball.
Despite her wide-ranging talents, Wiggins has made basketball her top priority. Consequently, some top colleges, including Stanford, USC, Texas, Connecticut and Arizona, are salivating over her athletic ability.
Narrowing her list to three schools, one of them being UCLA, Wiggins is still considering her options. “I wouldn’t say that I have a clear ‘favorite’ because I like all of the schools,” Wiggins said.
“It really will be a tough decision, but hopefully after visiting each college, I will be able to make a good choice.”
Wiggins is expecting to make an official visit to UCLA some time early in October. She plans to make an announcement in late October or early November at the latest.
“I love the UCLA coaching staff; they’re really great,” Wiggins said. “Kathy (Olivier) is such a unique coach, and her style and her charisma are one of a kind. You really don’t see any other coach act the way she acts, really down to earth.”
Despite sustaining a knee injury that resulted in arthroscopic surgery, Wiggins has come back stronger than ever.
The 5-foot-11-inch guard helped the back-to-back Division V champion Torres make the transition to Division IV this past year. Averaging an impressive 30.2 points and 15 rebounds, Wiggins, along with the rest of LJCD, posted a 27-5 record, which was capped off with a runner-up finish in the Division IV California Interscholastic Federation championship and a No. 6 state ranking.
“Candice will have an immediate impact at the college level,” Torres head coach Teri Bamford said. “She is a complete player, a great leader, a fierce competitor and she knows what it takes to win championships.”
Named to all-league teams, all-CIF teams, and the 2003 Union-Tribune San Diego Section Player of the Year for high school basketball, the No. 9-ranked Wiggins was one of 200 players invited to the Adidas Top Ten Girls All-American Basketball Camp in suburban Atlanta. This past summer, Wiggins also took part in the 2003 USA Women’s Youth Development Festival where she was a member of the West Team.
During the off-season, Wiggins has been preparing for the upcoming season and the looming transition to college-level play by feverishly working on her ball-handling skills and especially her mid-range game.
“I have always been notorious for slashing to the basket, so my junior year I really tried to perfect my outside range as much as possible,” Wiggins said. “It's still not where I want it, but it really has gotten better, especially over the summer.”