For senior Gina Maiorana, signing her National Letter of Intent (NLI) with Seton Hall on Feb. 1 marked a new beginning in sports after a crippling injury to her ACL on Dec. 28 last year. Playing soccer at Seton Hall is a dream come true for Maiorana, who has been playing the sport since she was four years old.
“I hadn’t heard of the school before, but I knew the coach and when I went to visit, I fell in love with it,” Maiorana said. It was also a weight off of her chest, as she was recruited in October 2010, but until she signed her NLI, “it was only a verbal commitment.”
Two months after her commitment, Maiorana tore her left ACL in a basketball game in Delaware last December. “I was playing in a high school basketball game and I got the ball and turned to shoot, but when I came down I landed on the defender’s foot with my left leg. It twisted and I knew something was wrong right away,” Maiorana said.
While her injury didn’t affect her prospects for college, she was forced to stop playing basketball. “It was definitely hard to stop playing because basketball was something I really enjoyed and loved to play for fun,” Maiorana said. She had to miss four games in the fall soccer season, but they were scrimmages and didn’t affect her commitment.
“When I was injured it was definitely very difficult to do normal things and a lot of the time I felt like I was helpless. But I couldn’t be happier that I am back to normal now and playing every day,” Maiorana said. She intends on continuing her career in sports when she majors in physical therapy.
Senior Shelby Foit’s decision to sign her NLI with Michigan State University was family-driven. “I chose Michigan State because both of my parents went there and my dad played soccer there… I’ve wanted to go there since I was little,” Foit said.
Foit will be following in her father’s footsteps and will also be playing soccer. She’s been playing since she was five and was recruited between her junior and senior year. Instead of definitely pursuing a career in athletics, she is still deciding what to study.
“I was thinking about [majoring in] psychology, but for now I will go on as undecided,” Foit said.
Senior Jarred Jones will be signing his NLI in April with Loyola University, where he’ll be playing basketball. He has played basketball since he was five and is used to attention from scouts. “I have been recruited all my life but it started to heat up last year,” Jones said.
“I chose [Loyola] because it was great academically and athletically, I knew a lot of people on the team, and I thought it would be great playing with them again,” Jones said. While he hasn’t chosen what he’ll major in yet, he’s planning on pursuing some sort of business degree.
Martha Schick is a Managing Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.