Great eight sign with colleges
Shaker athletes to continue sports at next level
LATHAM, N.Y.>> Shaker High School held a ceremony to celebrate eight athletes committing to play college sports. The Tuesday afternoon celebration included three Division I track and field athletes.
Those three Division I runners were Payton Czupil (Baylor), Nora Klinowski (Niagara) and Nia Joyner (Binghamton).
The other five athletes at the mock signing were Mia Ball, who will row crew at Barry University, Dino Ferrarese, a baseball player for Dominican College, Alissa Folts, who will play softball at College of Saint Rose, Elizabeth Morgan, a swimmer at Le Moyne and Emma Notarino, a lacrosse/field hockey athlete who will attend St. Thomas Aquinas.
“It was bigger than the rest, and it had a different sense of community that I was looking for,” Czupil said of Baylor. “And big sports, was just a good overall fit.”
As of May 1, Baylor was ranked as the No. 12 women’s track and field program in the country.
After the ceremony the three runners all took pictures and celebrated together. They had all previously signed their National Letters of Intent, so the actual papers they were signing were just a blank sheet. Still, the momentwas significant.
“I remember seeing previous teammates signing and I always thought, that’s so cool,” Klinowski said. “Now it’s us.”
Another cool story was Ferrarese, who said he was all set to go play baseball at Hudson Valley Community College before getting a surprise offer from Domincan College three days after Christmas.
He ended up choosing that over a small school in California, because he said he was offered a full scholarship to the school in Orangeburg, NewYork. He also said he’s been told he’ll start as a freshman pitcher for the D-II program.
“This offer came about,” Ferrarese said. “I’m just beyond excited. It was a great Christmas present.”