Friends, family, coaches, and administrators gathered in the Lecture Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 8 to support eight senior athletes as they took the next step in the college commitment process.  

Members of McLean High School’s swimming, lacrosse, softball, soccer, and baseball teams signed letters of intent along with high school athletes all over the country, wearing shirts representing their prospective schools.

McLean’s first athletes to sign this year include: Sinead Eksteen, University of Notre Dame; Laura Musikanth, Gannon University; Cassiday Slavik, East Carolina University; Paulina DeAnda, Coastal Carolina University; Julia Longo, University of Pennsylvania; Grant Williams, Randolph-Macon College; Christopher Schram, La Salle University; and Max Groppe, Emory University.

Paulina DeAnda, who plays on the lacrosse team at McLean and has committed to Coastal Carolina University, shared her experience with choosing the college that is a perfect fit for her.  

“The connection between me and the other players at Coastal Carolina really clicked and they made me feel welcomed right when I stepped onto the field.  The coach is awesome!  She’s super sweet and cares about every single player,” DeAnda said.  DeAnda committed for defense, but has been playing midfield on varsity for all four years of her high school career.

DeAnda’s teammates Laura Musikanth and Cassidy Slavik, who will be playing at Gannon University and East Carolina University, also participated in the signing, making up three of the eight commits present.  Slavik commented on this impressive showing by McLean’s girls lacrosse team.

“It was really cool to have three members of the girls lacrosse program sign together.  I was proud to see my teammates’ hard work pay off and it felt good to represent the team here at McLean,” Slavik said.

One of the two baseball commits who signed yesterday, Max Groppe, explained his feelings on the event.  

“Signing day was special because all these kids who will be playing in college got to celebrate it with each other.  I chose Emory because it’s a great school academically and it’s cool to see the work I put into baseball pay off academically and not just as an athlete,” Groppe said.  Groppe is a left handed pitcher who has been on varsity for three years.

With the first wave of college signings complete, McLean High School can plan on even more student athletes following in their peers’ footsteps later on this year.  

Senior James Bradley, who has verbally committed to the College of William & Mary for soccer but has yet to sign his letter of intent, shared his excitement for his own special day. 

“Although I wasn’t able to sign this time, I’m really happy for everyone who got to.  I was already looking forward to signing, but seeing some of my friends go through the process has made me even more excited for myself,” Bradley said.