Wednesday, February 4, 2009 , Updated
High school athletes across Dallas-Fort Worth sign collegiate Letters of Intent on Wednesday
Across North Texas and the rest of the U.S. on Wednesday, thousands of high school senior student-athletes will be putting pen to paper to pledge what universities they'll attend in the Fall.
smu.rivals.com
Carroll Senior High quarterback Kyle Padron is expected to sign with SMU on Wednesday.
February 4 is National Letter of Intent (NLI) Signing Day for student-athletes who participate in football, soccer, field hockey, track and field, cross country, and men's water polo. The NLI certifies that the student will attend a certain school for at least one academic year and that the school will provide financial aid for the same amount of time. Once the student has signed the letter, no other schools are allowed to recruit him/her. Though most athletes have already likely made oral commitments to attend specific schools, there are no binding agreements until the NLI is signed.
Several public and private high schools and ISDs across Dallas-Fort Worth will be holding signing ceremonies on Wednesday. Dallas ISD's “Meet the Signees” event in the Ellis Davis Field House on South Polk Street at noon is open to the public. They'll be honoring athletes in the sports above, as well as those who signed early for basketball and volleyball. Carroll Senior High School will hold their own signing ceremony at the crack of dawn, er, 9 a.m. where they'll introduce their own 16 senior athletes. Fort Worth Country Day School already has an announcement posted congratulating two of its women's soccer players impending signatures.*
Though none of the area universities are (technically) revealing their respective recruits until the letter of intent is signed, the buzz is front and center on their websites. UNT will blog their signees starting at 7 a.m. as the letters are faxed over. The athletic department will announce the 2009 women's soccer recruiting class at 11 a.m., then head football coach Todd Dodge is expected to give a press conference at 1 p.m. aired live on MeanGreenSports.com.
TCU has a page dedicated to all their incoming freshman signed thus far and will update with football, soccer, and so on in the afternoon. A football-only list and other hooplah will be released at 4 p.m. following a press conference with head coach Gary Patterson.
While SMU hasn't extolled any events online, no doubt they'll release lists of their signees throughout the day, as well.
*Countless schools have released similar announcements. These are simply a few examples.
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Erin Rice, says:
<b>Carroll Senior High School</b>
Cross-Country
C. J. Brown – Texas A & M<br> Tara Upshaw – Texas A & M
Football
Matt Boyles – Sam Houston State University<br> Brayden Burnett – University of Missouri<br> Scott Lopano – University of Pennsylvania<br> Kyle Padron – Southern Methodist University
Golf
Jeff Hageman - McClendon<br> Matt McClure – Trinity University<br> Alexa Park -
Boys’ Soccer
Louis Manning – Belmont University<br>
Girls’ Soccer
Monica Alvarado – Mississippi State University<br> Kelly Flaherty – <br> Lexis Learmonth – University of Tulsa<br> Laura Moritz – Stephen F. Austin<br> Jordan Payne – Stephen F. Austin<br> Leslie Shurtleff – University of Oklahoma<br>
<b>Marcus High School (football)</b>
Cameron Hickey signed with both Cisco Junior College and Southeastern Oklahoma State University Chase Douglass signed with the Air Force Academy Ty Cloud signed with the University of Houston Chris Olson signed with West Texas A&M Joel Free signed with Cisco Junior College Jared LeBon signed with Bentley University
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10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
Any word on who picked up the Siemen's science winner? from Denton ... or is that too academic for colleges to bother announcing?
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Alex Bentley, says:
From McKinneyNews.net, the list of McKinney ISD athlete signings:
<strong>BOYS SOCCER</strong>
Boyd's Haines Is Program's First D-1 Signee
McKinney Boyd captain Sam Haines signed with Valaparaiso on Wednesday morning. Valpo is a Horizon League program located in Indiana.
Several other Bronco soccer players, who are being recruited, are weighing their academic interests before deciding whether to play soccer in college.
<strong>GIRLS SOCCER</strong>
Four Lady Broncos Sign With D-1 Programs
McKinney Boyd's state-championship program had four players sign letters of intent with Division I universities on Wednesday morning.
Hailey Shelpuk signed with Samford Unversity, a Southern Conference program located in Birmingham, Ala.
Jillian Fuerman signed with Arkansas State, a Sun Belt Conference program in Jonesboro, Ark.
Jessica Gilchrist signed with Middle Tennessee State, a Sun Belt program, as well, located in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Lindsay South signed with Texas-San Antonio, a Southland Conference program.
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10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Erin Rice, says:
Jason, it's NLI signing day. There are thousands of kids pledging to attend schools on this day. Kids who have not only spent thousands of hours practicing their sport, but who have spent even more time in the classroom to keep their grades above (most well above) a necessary level. Maybe it's ok to give them some credit today?
I know your beef is with the schools and what to some might seem like unbalanced concern with athletics over school. But, for example, if you visit UNT.edu, the second highest news story for February 4 is, in fact, about your boy <a href="http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=11330">Wen Chyan</a>. In fact, <a href="http://web3.unt.edu/news/index.cfm">none of the six stories</a> are about sports (as of 12:31 p.m.). TCU.edu has one sports story on the homepage (fifth from the top) and on SMU.edu only one of the at least 24 stories/events you can click through is about sports.
The athletics programs for these schools tend to run third party sites so that sports aren't believed to override the academic value of the schools. Those are the sites going gaga today over signings today, one of the biggest signing days, and it seems pretty logical considering the subject matter.
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Jason Rice, says:
<sneer> I know, I know. You're sweet. Thanks.
I just got my quarterly (seems hourly) phone beg from an alleged alma mater and I'm feeling particularly anti-sport just now. I will never be able to comprehend college sports.
I just remembered catching the Siemen's Westinghouse thing and being pretty tickled it was a (mostly) local kid.
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Erin Rice, says:
For more info on local (mostly football) signings, the <i>DMN</i> has a whole blog roll here:
http://recruitingblog.dallasnews.com/
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Todd Jones, says:
TCU has announced their <a href="http://www.dfwfootball.net/2009/02/tcu-signing-day-signees/">2009 group </a> too.
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9 months, 4 weeks agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal