KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Multiple athletes from Knoxville Catholic, Maryville, Bearden and Alcoa put pen to paper to play their sport at the next level.
Knox Catholic had seven athletes sign, three of whom will be playing at the Division I level. Sydney Mains is heading to Florida Atlantic University, Eleni Liakonis will be playing tennis at Samford University and Hudson Lutterman is going to play baseball at Virginia Tech University.
“I committed sophomore year, so it’s kind of been leading up to this, but I’m really excited for the next four years there. I’m just glad that we got it rolling,” said Lutterman.
“Playing wise my dad, he’s awesome, and so is my mom,” said Mains. “They both are the coach and assistant, and they’ve been to so many college practices. The drills that we do are the drills that they do during their practice. Whenever I went on my official visit, I got to watch them practice, and I felt like I wasn’t going to be overwhelmed by the things they were doing.”
Over at Maryville, 10 rebels took part in National Signing Day, five of which will be playing at the highest level. Hailee Butler signed to row at Stetson University. Bekah Duke will be playing softball at the University of Pittsburgh. Taylor Hoag is heading to Longwood University to play soccer. Kiernan Stamey is taking her talents to Kennesaw State University to play volleyball and Cade Batchelor will be playing baseball at Belmont University.
“We have a really hard schedule, so there is never a game where we’re like ‘Oh, this is an easy game.’ I think it has really prepared me to be locked in for every single game and take every single game seriously because I know when I get to the next level it is always going to be a very difficult game,” said Duke when talking about how Maryville prepared her for the next level.
“Coach Sullivan, he knows what he’s doing,” said Batchelor. “He’s always looked out for us. Every day at practice he’s just showing us what to do to get better. I feel like I’ve just really learned from him and everything he has said and it has just helped me to get to where I am right now and continue to get better every day.”
After winning their third consecutive state title, Bearden had four soccer players sign. A pair of them are heading to Tennessee. Alivia Stott and Nyla Blue will be staying close to home to play under head coach Joe Kirt.
“I think it’s nice to have someone I know and I’m comfortable with and I’m excited to play beside her cause she’s like my sister and I’m excited to have someone there that I can always turn to and always find myself being close to,” said Stott.
“She surprised me and of course we were both overjoyed with so much love and just like happiness being able to play four more years together and just taking the next step together at UT,” said Blue.
Bre Mendoza signed to continue her soccer career at Dayton.
Finally, Alcoa star basketball Jahvin Carter inked his National Letter of Intent to play basketball at Penn State.
“I feel like it just comes from working hard you know everything is confidence, I feel like if you’ve got the confidence to go out there and play you can do whatever you want like if you have the confidence to start a season to go win state than we did it than we had the confidence to work in the gym every day,” said Carter.
