It is the day that many athletes have dreamed of their entire life. They have all trained for countless hours, sent several emails to coaches, and, surely several days, even weeks, trying to figure out which college would be best for the next 4 years. 

The day was Wednesday, February 5, 2020, as 14 Mustang athletes signed their National Letter of intent to their prospective colleges. The library was filled with parents, coaches, friends, teachers, and teammates as they watched these athletes sign this important document.

The 14 student-athletes included lacrosse players: Jason Bohlinger (12) who will attend Chapman University, Miles Dela Rosa (12) who will be playing at Colorado Mesa, and Ryan Henry (12) who chose the University of Massachusetts Amherst to continue his lacrosse career.

Football players, Nathan Cardona (12) will be attending Boise State while Carson Ochoa (12) will continue his academic and football career at Carroll College. 

In addition, both our boys’ and girls’ soccer programs had an outstanding amount of signings this year with Neleah Dunlap (12) signing to play at Cal Baptist University next year, Hannah Ireland (12)  continuing her soccer career at Hope International University, Emily Nelson (12) will be at the University of Redlands, and Alexis Perry (12) will be attending Ouachita Baptist to continue her sport. Two athletes from the men’s soccer program also signed, with Brooks Perry (12) committing to play at the Naval Academy and Eliot Ruoo (12) signing to continue his soccer career at Biola University.

Other players included, Faith Hunt (12) who selected Vanguard University to play both soccer and run  track, and Hayley Killion (12) who plans to run both track and cross country at Concordia University.  

Finally, Nathan Waugh (12) will be playing baseball at Cornell University.  

These Mustang athletes have worked very hard to get recruited as it is not an easy process. First, the students have to email coaches inviting them out to games, continue to email and catch up with coaches in order to build relationships, travel far and visit the school, and finally choose which school would be perfect for the next four years. All of this is done while still studying and performing well in school. Some of these athletes decided their junior year which school they wanted to attend, others chose as late as just two days before they were supposed to sign. 

Yorba Linda High school’s athletic director, Mr. Platt, explained in the ceremony that only 7% of all high school athletes pursue their athletic career in college. This leads our 14 scholar-athletes to be among the best of all student-athletes in our country. 

We are all very proud of all of our athletes that signed. Their leadership and hard work on and off the field have inspired their teammates, coaches, teachers, and peers. Sterling Milsap (11), who is teammates with Neleah Dunlap, Emily Nelson, and Hannah Ireland, says that she is “very proud of [her] teammates because they have been working so hard their entire lives and all of their hard work is finally paying off.” They are perfect ambassadors for our Mustang community and we can’t wait to see what they do during and after college.