Signing Day
Signing Day

Nineteen Long Beach Athletes Sign Scholarships Totaling $3.5 Million

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

 

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
http://The562.org