Cherie is considered the best female basketball player to ever come out of Pasadena community, and was Parade All-American at Marshall Fundamental HS in 1984-85. She averaged 34 points, 29 rebounds, and 9 blocked shots a game as the CIF 1-A Player of the Year as a senior, after leading her team to the CIF title as a junior. She was the four-time League MVP. She picked USC over all other major universities, and was the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1988 when she led the league in scoring and rebounding, after being All-Conference in 1987, and the first to ever score 50 points in a game.

She was a HM All-American. She finished among the all-time conference leaders with 2474 career points in her Trojan career to go with 1232 rebounds, ranking her in the top 50 all-time of NCAA play as a combo, including second all-time for USC behind SCBBHOFer Cheryl Miller.  She played professional basketball overseas in Japan and Italy before retiring. ESPN selected her as one of the 50 greatest players in conference history. She was inducted into the Pasadena Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.