Nineteen Long Beach high school students signed athletic scholarships last Wednesday on the NCAA’s early period National Letter of Intent Signing Day. The already-large group represent just a fraction of the seniors that are expected to sign scholarships by the end of the school year, and all of the local schools are planning celebrations for later in the school year if in-person ceremonies are allowed by then.
In all, the scholarships represent more than $3.5 million worth of free education and housing that these student-athletes have earned.
LONG BEACH STATE
Long Beach State also announced the signing of several student-athletes. The recruiting process for the Beach will be complicated by the NCAA’s granting of an additional year of eligibility for Fall student-athletes this year, which will leave many programs across the country doing hard math about how many scholarships they can afford.
The LBSU men’s volleyball team signed six, five freshmen and one junior college transfer player. The Beach will enter the upcoming season as the two-time defending NCAA champions and added the nation’s top recruiting class for the 2021 season. For 2022, the athletes who signed last week, they’ll add Connor Bloom, Dane Hillis, Klistan Lawrence, Alex Nikolov, Josh Rosenblum, and Calvin Sanborn.
The LBSU women’s golf team added Kristina Ponomareva from Russia, and the softball team signed Suzy Brookshire and Shannon Haddad, both transfers from San Jose State.
WILSON
Hailey Houston (Softball): Augustana
Ava Trachta (Softball): Worcester Polytechnic
Mikayla Nolte (Volleyball): CSU Monterey Bay
Riley White (Volleyball): University of New Mexico
Katharine Mumm (Volleyball): Menlo
Maya Bryson (Track & Field): Dartmouth
Naomi Kilson (Track & Field): Baker University
Jordan Weimer (Track & Field): Baker University
Connie Herrera (Soccer): Sacred Heart University
POLY
Peyton Watson (Basketball): UCLA
Jalen Pitre (Basketball): Pepperdine
Aasha McLyn (Soccer): Cal
Kira Ybarra (Soccer): University of San Francisco
LAKEWOOD
Kendall Lundberg (Softball): Utah
Alejandra Mota (Softball): UC Davis
Diego Gutierrez (Baseball): CSUN
MILLIKAN
Grace Fleming (Softball): University of Illinois in Chicago
Calyce Jones (Volleyball): Norfolk
ST. ANTHONY
Jaena Bell (Volleyball): Louisiana Tech
