By Lyla Nelson
This past Wednesday, April 23rd, a record-breaking 23 members of the senior class officially signed to continue playing their sport in college, whether it be swimming, soccer, football, baseball, wrestling, track, tennis, golf, or cheerleading.
Around lunchtime, the stadium was filled with lots of energy, as many friends, family and coaches of the athletes gathered to celebrate the senior athletes.
Of the signees, I first spoke with Katleyn Nixon, who will be continuing her soccer career at Furman University in South Carolina. Go Dins!!
She first shared that she thoroughly enjoyed celebrating all her hard work alongside her friends, family, and the four other signees from the soccer team – Mary Parrish Green, Ridley Newton, and Mary Camp Newton.
Katelyn said that it was especially meaningful to look up into the stadium and see not just her soccer teammates, but also her friends there to support her.
I next spoke with Alexis Dalton, who will be swimming at the University of South Carolina in the fall. When asked to describe signing day, she said it was “surreal.”
She told me that she can remember going to signing day her freshman year, alongside her good friend Mary Camp Newton, and the two of them hoped that one day it would be them.
So, on Wednesday when it finally did happen, she said, “It was crazy that it was our turn.”
Overall, Alexis thinks that it was amazing to have signing day as a mark of their accomplishments and seal the deal on what they had been working so hard on, not just for the past three years, but most of their lives.
After hearing from Katelyn and Alexis, I turned my attention to a group of signees – Virginia Lathrop, Mary Parrish Green, Virginia Jane Hultrgen, and Hall Wildman, who will all be continuing their athletic careers at Washington & Lee University, whether that be on the swim team, soccer team, or cross country team.
Of these four seniors, I first spoke with Mary Parrish, who told me that she is so excited that Virginia, VJ, and Hall will also be playing sports at W&L, and she can’t wait to cheer them on!
Virginia is excited that she’ll get to watch her good friends compete, and will share more years on the swim team with VJ, her teammate from the Lovett swim team.
VJ also added that in her first few weeks on campus, it will definitely be nice to see some familiar faces, and I know the other three commits agree.
The final athlete that I talked to about signing day was Theo, who will be throwing on the track and field team at Villanova. When talking about his Lovett athletic experience, he said he has formed numerous relationships with teammates and trainers, and it meant a lot for them to be there supporting him on signing day.
He is also super excited for the chance to get to know teammates from places all around the world, as well as throw in meets where he will get to travel.
After years of hard work and dedication, not just these 7 athletes, but all 23 of them have left a lasting impact on our school’s sports programs, and as they head off to continue their journeys, all over the country, at the next level, we could not be prouder and more excited for them!
