On April 17, the final high school signing day for the 2018-19 school year took place in the main gym.

A total of 17 athletes made their next chapter official for where they plan to attend college. The spring signing day had the most people to commit to a college out of the two signing days within the two semesters.

College sports is something that many athletes take as “the next chapter” of a life they stared out from their childhood. This is the case for senior Tayte Sanders, football commit to William Jewell College, who went his whole senior season benched with injury. Playing in a game once again is something that makes Sanders even more excited to start his college football career.

“Knowing the hard work I had to put in to be able to get back to the collegiate level makes it special,” Sanders said. “A lot of things happen that you don’t plan for sometimes, but you got to be ready for it.”

Some high school athletes don’t always have a set goal on going to college for sports only. To be a good student-athlete means that there is also a factor of academics when it comes to choosing a school to attend. For senior Jenna Parmentier, volleyball commit to Rockhurst University, she chose her school also to get idea of the programs away from sports to specialize in after college.

“I want to get into the nursing program because that’s what I want to do [after highschool], so that is something I look forward to outside of volleyball,” Parmentier said.

Some athletes have been involved in multiple sports for the varsity level, like seniors Jarrin McKeithen, who committed to play football at Lincoln University, and Lanni Guffey. For all his four years of high school, McKeithen has been involved in three varsity sport teams (track, basketball and football). 

“I worked very hard and put in a lot of hours with different coaches and now it’s all paying off,” McKeithen said.

With the final athletic signings taking place, Liberty has had 31 athletes to go on and play college sports (who have signed as of April 17). With this many athletes going on to the next part of their lives, Liberty has a bright future ahead to make many more college athletes in the coming years.