TOWAMENCIN- On Tuesday morning in the staff dining room at North Penn High School a group comprised of press, coaches, and family gathered to watch eight student athletes sign their letters of intent to play their sports at the collegiate level. The list of athletes includes Marrisa Elizardo for field hockey, Makayla Bowman for lacrosse, Sydney Lear for lacrosse, Emily Schulze for lacrosse, Jared Melone for Baseball, Olivia Distefano for swimming, Taylor Thames for basketball, and Madison Tanis for diving.

While Elizardo, Lear (Queens), and Tanis (Findlay) chose to take their talents out of state, the group still had a local theme to it, as the other 5 signees elected to go to local schools with Melone, Schulze, and Distefano committing to LaSalle and Thames and Bowman electing to go to Kutztown. It was the ability to stay close to home that was the deciding factor for these athletes.

“I chose Kutztown because its close to home and when I visited I liked the coach and all of the girls on the team,” said Bowman.

“I chose Lasalle University because it was close to my family and they had a really good education program which I want to go into,” stated Schulze who chose Lasalle over James Madison, Temple, and others.

Some of the signees credited the North Penn athletic program with helping them reach the next level. The size of the School and the competition to just make a team helped them develop as players they believe.

“I think going to a big school kind of allowed me to see a lot of different things so i knew where ever I went, if I went to a big school or small school, I’d be able to handle it because I came from a big school,” Elizardo commented.

“The winter program here is such a long season. The amount we practice here is probably equivalent to what we’d be doing [at college practices] so it kind of gets you used to college practices,” said the Findley Diving Commit Tanis.

With their signatures officially put to paper, the commits wrap up what was a long recruitment period. It is relieving for those of them who began the recruiting process when they were just underclassmen.

“I started pretty much the end of sophomore year and it’s been really really long and I’m glad for it to end,” said Tanis.

“The end of my sophomore year I started my recruiting process, which is really early but lacrosse is a really early recruiting process and I had help from my coach. Also I was on a club team that helped me do all of my recruiting stuff,” said Schulze.

With the recruiting process in the rearview mirror it’s on to the next chapter for the student athletes. Those playing winter and spring sports will prepare for their final high school seasons, while the ones who played fall sports will begin to prepare for the next level. They will all be able to sleep a little easier now knowing that their college decisions have finally officially been made.