Gathered in front of your student body, family, and friends to sign a letter of intent to continue an athletic career is a dream for most. According to NCAA, nearly eight million students currently participating in high school athletics in the United states, only 460,000 of them will compete at NCAA schools. Of that group, only a fraction will realize their goal of becoming a professional athlete.

“My passion for the sport is what ultimately led me to college soccer. I can’t even imagine going to school without having a sport to do,” said senior Elise Reina.  

Reina, who has committed to play soccer at the University of Kansas, had a very smooth decision making process.

“I started late my freshman year because for soccer it’s a lot earlier than other sports. I was done with the process at the beginning of my junior year after I verbally committed, so I had no more stress finding a place to go to school,” said Reina.  

The NCAA has a rule that coaches are not allowed to contact athletes they hold interest in until Sept. 1 of their junior year in high school, so it is often a one sided process until coaches are free to contact.

“I was the one in charge of reaching out to colleges by calling or messaging them. There were a lot of small schools that reached out to me that I wasn’t too interested in,” said Reina.  

Reina was sought out by multiple schools, but talked most in depth with the University of Arkansas, Creighton University, Missouri State, Kansas, and University of Central Arkansas. Reina made her decision to play at KU because it fit her dream of always wanting to play at a Division 1 school, and met her most important qualification. “My connection with my coaches, and my connection with the girls on my team, was the most important,” said Reina.

Junior Emily Doss, who has already made a final decision to further her volleyball career at the University of Central Arkansas, had a unique recruiting process.

“I first started getting interest about two summers ago. The funny thing is UCA was the first college to take interest in me,” she said. With Doss being so young and committing before her junior year season, the process was stressful, but she wanted to take advantage of the opportunities as they arose.

Doss and her mom ironically ran into the new UCA coaches while flying home from a volleyball tournament.,

“My mom saw that the assistant coach’s ticket was about to fall out of his pocket, so she told him, and then after that he asked who I played for and asked for my name,” said Doss.

Days later, the head coach from UCA, Jeni Jones, contacted Doss’s coach, and asked to have a phone call with Doss. This phone call resulted in offer for a full ride scholarship to UCA.

“It was kind of just awesome, and it seriously was a God thing how it happened,” said Doss.

Senior Fuller Chandler also hopes to extend his time to play the game of football. Chandler hasn’t committed to play anywhere just yet and is keeping his options open,  enjoying the whole process.

“It has been super exciting. The unknowns about it are kind of fun, like who will talk to you, or how they will get ahold of you,” said Chandler.

Chandler has the interest of many schools, such as Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Mizzou, SE Missouri State, Memphis, Arkansas St, Louisiana Monroe, and a lot of division 2 schools as well.

“I’m just trying to find somewhere that I’m super comfortable with that has good academics, and that I think I would enjoy even if football weren’t an option,” said Chandler. “I love the challenge. I can’t imagine not having anything to look forward to in the fall. I genuinely love football, and that will allow me to extend my time to get to play it,” said Chandler.