Photo Credit: Karen Manley

On Wednesday, April 11, twelve student athletes from Fossil Ridge High School signed their scholarships to play in college, including Olivia Osborn, Rachel Schneider, Lindi Pojar, Alexis Johnson, Mia Valvur, Jack Hastings, Sydney Teslow, Alex Henderson, Katey Guzman, Garrett Brown, Richard Dauksher, and Bryce Henry, With sports ranging from track to swimming to cheer, each athlete listened to a short speech from one of their coaches, telling a story about their work ethic or their inspiration of others. Emotions ran high in the commons, as parents and grandparents, teammates and best friends all showed up to support the young athletes.

Fossil athletic director Brandon Carlucci explained that there are three days per year known as National Letter of Intent Day. On each of them, students across the nation commit to their respective colleges and universities. Carlucci was thrilled at the fact that Fossil held an April day at all this year, because last year, there were not any students to fill it. However, this year, there were twelve athletes in November and another sixteen in February.

Carlucci went on to explain that Fossil holds a celebration each signing day because “we want to have public recognition of that, and celebrate it with them, because it’s a big deal. We want to be a part of it.” He opened the celebration with a short speech, in which he thanked the coaches and parents that stand behind every student. Next, Carlucci discussed the fact that a college scholarship, and being recruited to play at that level, isn’t the only reason a student plays a sport. Rather, it’s because they strive for excellence. They want to be the best that they can be, and oftentimes, colleges recognize that drive. Carlucci concluded by adding that, “at some point, they probably thought, ‘is this really worth it?’, and today, I hope they’re thinking, ‘yes. It was.’”

Teslow, a track athlete, signed with California State University, San Marcos. She’s always wanted to go to school in California, and is really excited to go out of state and experience new things. Her coach for several years, Danni Cook, commented on the fact that, “she’s the kind of athlete that freshmen and coaches want to have. She really paved the way for young girls to know that it’s okay to be good.” Cook finally urged Teslow, “don’t be afraid to go make more of an impact.”

Maddie Larkin, a junior cheerleader, attended the event to support two of her fellow cheerleaders. Johnson and Schneider both committed to University of Wyoming, and Larkin has cheered with them for the past three years. She thinks that, “it’s a huge accomplishment for our program overall, and I’ve looked up to both of them since freshman year, so to know that they can go past just high school cheerleading and actually make it something that they’re going to do for the next four years is a big thing to inspire me to look forward to.”

Henderson, meanwhile, decided on Whitworth University in Washington for swimming. Having applied to twenty-seven colleges, he was really excited to finally be able to say that, “you are going here. Once you sign this, there’s no more backing out of it. I’m not worrying about this anymore.” Mark Morehouse, science teacher and swim coach at Fossil, helped him talk through his options during the summer and really led him through the decision-making process. Henderson can’t wait to attend what he describes as a beautiful college with weather very similar to Colorado’s.

As Carlucci put it, “today is the compilation of many many years of hard work.” Congratulations to all the athletes who signed today, and good luck in everything you pursue next.