From the pool to the soccer field, WHHS SENIORS Sophia Cucheti, Ava Stallmeyer and Phoebe Wright have all competed well enough to catch colleges attention. At signing day on Nov 10, the three lady eagles were surrounded by a crowd of fellow SENIORS cheering them on as their signatures made their commitments official.

“I felt really proud to be signing the letter. It was a surreal feeling to finally be signing and to make everything official. I was really happy about it.” Wright said.

There is a long commitment process these athletes must go through before signing day. From communicating with coaches to taking official visits, athletes have a lot to think about and have to make their decisions a significant amount of time before other SENIORS.

“I felt like there was a lot of pressure in the recruiting process because it starts at such a young age,” Stallmeyer said. “By the time you’re out of your sophomore year you don’t really know what you want yet, but you have to figure it out and choose a year earlier than most people.”

After having gone through this process, Stallmeyer will be swimming at Bucknell University, Wright will be swimming for George Washington, and Cuchetti will be playing soccer at Cleveland State. They arrived at these decisions with large support systems behind them.

“My club coach Alex [is my biggest influence] because he got me to the level I am today and really helped me with the recruiting process,” Wright said.

“My biggest influence would probably be my dad and my trainer,” Cuchetti said. “They support me through everything and help me get better and push me to be the best I can be. I’m so grateful that I’ve had great teammates as well throughout all the teams I’ve been on.”

Notably, for the first time in recent WHHS history, all of the athletes on signing day were women. Historically, women have not been offered the same college athletic opportunities as men have, so it is promising to see three lady eagles committing to collegiate athletics.

“I thought it was really empowering to girls and it shows that girls can compete at a high level in sports just as much as guys,” Stallmeyer said.

“I thought it was awesome,” Wright said. “Lots of girl power in our grade. It was really nice signing with two other girls just knowing we’ve gone through a lot of the same things and all getting to sign together.”

Although they had to put in a lot of work to get to signing day, all three eagles agree it was worth it. They hope that other girls will continue to excel athletically and have more signing days that include a large number of lady eagles committing to college athletics.

“My advice for other girls who want to play in college is just keep working every day,” Cuchetti said. “It’s not easy ever so you just have to keep working hard.”