NHS Students Lock in Their Futures
For many people at Northern this February has been a very exciting time especially for high school sports signees. The opportunity to take your talent to the next level is something many athletes do not get to do.
“My signing day was bitter sweet, simply because losing my mom prior to this made that day very difficult for me,” senior Ezekiel Williams said. “But having the support of my family and friends made it a life-time experience,”
In early January college official visits began for most NHS athletes. Official visits are designated times you get to spend a weekend at the school recruiting you in expense of the school. Some official visits are what makes a player pick a specific school over another.
“The official visit to Wingate is what won me over,”senior Justin Rhodes said. “It made me feel like I was at home and it was a place I could develop as a player and as a person.”
HighSchool signees have a big responsibility of finding the right fit for them to spend the next four years and that is where visits come in good use .
“My visits were good because after a few times meeting coaches and players I knew that I had found a home picking school. It was not that hard simply because I did not have a lot of schools looking at me, so picking between a few and seeing which one would be best fit for me was not too hard,” Williams said.
HighSchool coaches play a major role in getting kids to the next level but it starts with the athlete. Coaches are only there to help guide their athletes in the right direction but it is the athletes job to want it bad enough to make it happen for themselves. Many high school coaches think it is their responsibility to help get many athletes committed to a school their player loves.
“I do believe that coaches play a major role in helping players get to the next level and I take that very seriously as a coach,”football coach Raymond Wilson said.
With that being said many lives were changed with this signing period and it is going to be amazing to see what the next next chapter holds for these students. Hopefully this class can keep inspiring the younger student athletes to work hard and stay focused and maybe one day they will be signing to their favorite school.
“I am very excited to sign to duke next year,” junior Tre Freeman said. “I am looking forward to all the excitement [this year's signees] have experienced.”
This year’s signees have passed the thrill of signing to a college on to the following year. With that being said Northern’s student athletes are ALL N for signing to college.