Dos Pueblos celebrated its 2023 senior group of student athletes moving to the next level during a signing ceremony at Sovine Gym on Wednesday.
Fourteen Chargers were introduced and praised by their coaches during the lunchtime ceremony.
The student athletes signing college offers are: Makeila Cervantes (Pomona Pitzer for indoor volleyball), Avery Ball (Messiah College for lacrosse), Emma Gilbert (Harvard for water polo), Ava Bennett (Pomona Pitzer for water polo), Ryan Speshyock (Stanford for baseball), Chloe Hoffman (Stanford for beach volleyball), Lucy Speier (University of San Francisco for beach volleyball), Maddie Nees (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical for lacrosse), Tyler Jamieson (University of Colorado-Colorado Springs for cross country/track), Luci Koroshec (Westmont College for cross country/track), Phoebe Wolfe Lyons (Claremont-McKenna for cross country/track), Brynn Graham (UC Davis for swimming), Cooper Costello (University of Chicago for swimming), Nikko Carrillo (Wagner University for swimming).
This was the 16th year Dos Pueblos has recognized all its graduating student-athletes who signed college offers.
“We had 4-5 students we recognized that first year,” recalled Feldhaus. “We started small and now we’ve gotten to this awesome event. It’s one of my favorite activities that we do here.”
He said the ceremony was started to recognize the accomplishments of the students athletes.
“Their dedication goes beyond the pool, the field and court. These students also met their academic requirement to reach this goal. They succeeded in the classroom and were able to balance playing their sport at a very high level.”
Graham is looking forward to swimming for coach Matt Macedo at UC Davis. He formerly coached at UCSB and was twice named Big West Coach of the Year.
She said the team environment under Macedo “is just the best I’ve ever seen, and that just really drew me to the whole program.
“I wanted to go to a Division 1 program and UC Davis just felt like a really good fit in both academics and swimming.”
Wolfe Lyons said Claremont McKenna was her choice from the start.
“I wanted a small liberal arts school and I knew I wanted to run (at the NCAA Division 3 level). I took an overnight visit there at the end of September. I was planning a trip back east as I was looking at some other places. But after the visit, getting to stay with the team, getting to see the culture and sitting in on a class, I said this is where I want to be.”
She credited her team at DP for helping make this signing day possible.
“Our team was the best. I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for my teammates being just the best people ever, and just making me happy, making me run faster and making me a better person.”
Koroshec and Jamieson were part of DP boys cross country teams that ran in back-to-back CIF State Championships.
Jamieson said “qualifying for state two years in a row with this group of guys, Orlando Ye, Luci” were his highlights as a DP athlete. “The whole process with them and then making it to state for these past two years has been really special.”
Koroshec said making state in his junior year and then being the first DP team finisher at the championships this past season were the high points of his high school career.
As for running in college, “It’s super exciting, I’m overjoyed,” he said. “I didn’t even think of going to Westmont until earlier this year. When I started meeting coach (Russ) Smelley and meeting with the team, I said, ‘Yeah, this is the place for me, where I can continue to grow as a student and as an athlete.’
“I’m super excited to have committed today.”
Jamieson said Colorado-Colorado Springs was the first school he looked at as a place to continue his running career and education.
“They’ve been reaching out to me during this whole process,” he said. “I made a visit, talked to the coach and everything just really connected well.”