13 NCHS athletes sign National Letters of Intent

Ellen Ludtke, Editor-in-Chief
@eludtkecourant

On Wednesday, 13 seniors gathered with their coaches, families, and friends for NCHS Signing Day, sealing in writing their commitment to play a sport at their prospective college. The countless hours of training, playing in games or competing in matches, attending showcases and tournaments, touring schools, and contacting coaches culminated with a stroke of pen on paper, affirming their recruitment to play at the Division I level at a prestigious university.

Ten athletes signed National Letters of Intent (NLI) and three athletes signed “Likely Letters” (written statement committing to play a sport at an Ivy League institution), altogether representing NCHS baseball, diving, lacrosse, rowing, softball, swimming, and track and field.

As almost all student athletes can attest, the path to getting to this point was not easy, as it required an immense amount of time and focus dedicated to the recruiting process. For senior athlete Jackson Appelt who signed his NLI to play lacrosse at the University of Virginia, this meant putting in a significant amount of time in the summer attending scouting tournaments where colleges coaches would be, which tested his endurance and motivation. “One of the hardest things was the hectic summer scheduling with tournaments in the heat of Baltimore and other areas that I had to play in for very long periods of time going into my sophomore year prior to my commitment,” he said. “This was certainly the most physically taxing period of my recruitment, as my body didn’t really get a break during this three-week period. It was also somewhat nerve racking to be playing in front of coaches and trying to make an impression.”

In addition to the physical pressures, senior athlete Claire Campbell, who signed her “Likely Letter” to row at Dartmouth College, experienced internal conflict about narrowing down the recruitment offers to decide where she wanted to commit. “The hardest parts for me were deciding where I wanted to take official visits, where I wanted to end up going, and telling the other coaches that I wasn’t going to their school,” she said. “I had no idea what I wanted in a school and so many people were voicing their opinions, so that was tough.”

With 13 athletes affirming their commitment in first stage of signing, the class of 2017 has one of the largest group of recruited athletes in NCHS’s recent years. Jackson feels pride for his fellow recruited athletes as well as NCHS. “It’s humbling and exciting to be part of such an amazing group of student athletes at New Canaan,” he said. “I’m grateful that my friends and fellow classmates have been fortunate enough to have their hard work rewarded, and I’m looking forward to getting the opportunity to eventually play against some of my closest friends and teammates in the near future.”

Click through the slideshow to see pictures of the student athletes, their coaches, and their families from the NCHS Signing Day Ceremony. All photos by Ellen Ludtke

Baseball

Robby Jones, University of Connecticut

Boys Diving

Cameron Rhind, University of Pennsylvania

Boys Lacrosse

Jackson Appelt, University of Virginia

Andrew Bauersfeld, University of Vermont

Drew Morris, University of Maryland

Ryan O’Connell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Boys Rowing

John Norton, Brown University

Girls Rowing