Senior Caroline Haggerty is playing in her last summer tournament in Richmond, Virginia. This is her last time to shine before college coaches start emailing her expressing interest on September 1. Three minutes are on the clock, and Haggerty has the ball. Her team sprints through the eight meter arc, leaving a lane for her to go to goal.
Haggerty fakes left, goes right, and has a one on one situation with the goalie. She sees the fear in the goalies eyes as she perfectly shoots the ball into the back of the net. The players go wild, and the college coaches start writing her name down.
Six months after this tournament, Haggerty had verbally committed to play lacrosse at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Haggerty and 17 others seniors have signed to play sports in Division 1, 2, and 3 colleges throughout the country in lacrosse, swimming, basketball, track and field, and wrestling.
These seniors are Mackenzie Reese, Jordan Clarke, Mackenzie Rayburn, Hannah Griffith, Mackenzie Bailey, Emily Etkins, Jordan Sdanowich, Alison Kozel, Alexa DiPeso, Carrie Dukes, Mike Owona, Christian Owona, Rodney Elliot, Kiana Wright, Olivia DiFonso, Nicole Wojcik, Nick Druelinger, and George Weber.
“The recruiting process was fun but hectic at the same time. It was great knowing that I was wanted at multiple schools. But it was hard choosing between schools,” senior Rodney Elliot said. Elliott will be playing basketball at UMBC next year.
According to senior Kiana Wright, who will be running track at Lehigh University next year, “The [recruiting] experience was very good because my coach didn’t look at me as an object based on how good I am now, or how much recognition I’ll get the team, but he likes me for my potential as well as my current skill.”
Although these seniors have signed and received scholarships to play a certain sport in college, some feel as if they are mentally and physically unprepared to participate in college athletics yet.
“I feel completely unprepared. I never ran on a serious track team, and never had to be super serious about the sport. I never had very difficult track practices where I’ve felt pressured to push myself beyond my limits,” Wright said.
Senior Jordan Clarke has a different opinion. “The John Carroll women’s lacrosse team is in one of the nation’s top, if not the toughest, conferences of competition. I feel that the program here at JC has both mentally and physically prepared me to compete at the highest level of competition in D1 college play.”
Meredith Haggerty is an In-Depth Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.