One of the things I thought I could share with everybody this week is a great experience created for kids that not everybody gets to enjoy, but it’s way cool. For years now, we have done athletic signings at different times of the year. Basically, what we do is, students who are pursuing college careers in athletics and have received some type of formal invitation or scholarship, the athletic department sets up a little reception and celebrates with the family. The announcement of where they intend to play and what they intend to study makes for a great snapshot of this time in their life. Sharing this moment with their families and, of course, having their high school teammates around them, is always something special we can do for the kids who put in countless hours as student athletes.
This past week, we happened to have two more student athletes have their signing day. Ella is headed to Heidelberg University for swimming and continuing her passion. Camryn is headed to DePaul University for softball. Both these student athletes are amazing kids in the classroom and have been able to set records and win honors for our high school and community. This culminating event of signing to move on to college kind of encapsulates all that time and passion for being a student athlete. I have shared a photo and I hope you can picture the moment. What you don’t get to see, though, is my favorite part, the audience. Each of our ceremonies, sitting in the audience, are our coaches, youth coaches who started with them at young ages, travel coaches, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teammates, high school friends and, of course, mom and dad. These moments are so special as we get to celebrate with the students on their big accomplishment.
The final thing that I always find so intriguing about our signing days is just how many kids we do this for. I want to give a shout out to Kelly Fink and Sherri Koback for all the work they do. Because, after each of these signings, we have a little ceremony complete with snacks and great fellowship. Mr. Screptock, our athletic director, has taken upon himself to make these great events for kids. Thank you, Mr. Screptock, for improving our signing day process and for recognizing our student athletes moving on.
P.S. Taking from Screptock’s inspiration, look for us in March to also have our military signing day with very similar attributes and celebrations going to the kids who are signing to go into our nation’s military and defend our freedoms worldwide.
