NCAA college commitments continue to roll in

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NCAAUSA
··2 min read

National Letter of Intent Day came and went last week, but a bunch of new players have signed on since then to play at various Division 1 NCAA colleges in the fall. We also hear from some of our own writers, who recall the day they signed to play for their respective colleges.

Kara Fasano (Gwinnett Soccer Association), Lauren Davis (Mandeville SC), and Janea Simpson and Laura Lee Smith, both of Birmingham United SA, all signed with the University of Alabama.

Heading to the University of Idaho are Nikki Adams (Sereno Soccer Club), Lillian Archer (Eastside United FC), Katie Baran (Spokane Shadow), Marissa Fehrman (Neusport FC), Annie Millard (Spokane Shadow), and Emily Ngan (Eastside United FC)

Miriam Rhinehart (Hurricane 93), Madison Mercado (Birmingham United), and Ashley Kennedy, Rosa Medina, and Hayley McKinney, all from Dallas Texans, will play for the University of Oklahoma.

Villanova welcomes Estonian Women’s National Team forward Katrin Loo, Caitlin Forte (Penn Fusion), Kathryn Rayner (FC Stars of Massachusetts), Victoria Gersh (Bethesda), Katie Campbell (Real Colorado), Bryana Gold (GSA – Georgia), Amanda Penkrot (Hockessin Soccer Club), and Katie Hogman (PDA).

Our Game Magazine staffers and professional players Manya Makoski (Arizona State University 2002-2006), Ciara McCormack (Yale University, University of Connecticut), and Tiffany Weimer (Penn State 2002-2006) talked about what it was like the day they committed to their respective schools.

“It felt like forever until I could officially sign. Even though I was really excited, on signing day I was still really nervous,” Makoski said, who now plays for Thor/KA in Iceland after two seasons in Women’s Professional Soccer. “I was committing myself to play for a team and go to school 3,000 miles away from home. Nothing was for certain. But as soon as I signed and called my head coach, Ray Leone, I knew it was the right decision. After I came back home from my official visit to Arizona State, I was 100 percent positive it was where I wanted to go to school and play soccer. It was a perfect fit for me – the coaches, team, facilities, campus, climate, and weather.”

“Signing for PSU was one of the happiest days of my life,” Weimer said. “My family didn’t have a lot of money, so going to a big-time college because of soccer was always my dream.”

“It was a bit different for me. I was still taking recruiting trips to places such as Seton Hall and Marquette right through to April of my senior year of high school,” said McCormack, who started her collegiate career at Yale before transferring to UConn. “I don’t think Ivy’s do letters of intent, so I got accepted to Yale, and then the stuff started coming in the mail to prepare me for my freshman year on the other side of the continent. However, I got injured my senior year at Yale, and so I went through the recruiting process again, and got a fifth year at the University of Connecticut. I remember getting my letter of intent via Fed-Ex in my apartment and throwing a dance party with my roommate as I saw that things such as books and food, etc. would be covered via scholarship. This was monumental as my roommate and I lived the poor college life and couldn’t afford the necessities of life such as proper food and actually buying books (instead of reading them in the bookstore before class). Therefore, seeing those boxes covered in my scholarship at UConn definitely was cause for celebration, so signing that letter of intent was that much more memorable.”