“Coach is not just a basketball coach, he is the father of Cochise basketball. He isn’t always the father that each of us wants at any given moment but he is the father each of us needs. He turns his players into the men that they need to become, while he is turning them into the basketball players they didn’t know that they could be. I would never have realized my dream of playing Division I basketball without coach. I had one full scholarship offer coming out of high school and by the time I left I was pursued by schools from the Big 10 and Big East. With that being said, I will remember Coach Carrillo less for the amazing things that he did for me on the court and more for what did for me as a mentor and a father. I wouldn’t trade my two years at Cochise with Coach Caha and Coach Carrillo (Even “Coach” Jay) for anything. If you talk to any of the former Cochise players they will tell you that in a heartbeat they would be back at Camp Cochise if they could. Even the four of us who went on to play Division I this year would trade it for another year in the program at Cochise. I speak for all of when I say that there was no experience that could rival the camaraderie, the learning and the love that we had with the Cochise basketball program.”
Jason Hopkins
2004-06 Cochise men’s basketball player
Played for Lipscomb University