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Schools

Schreiber Athletes Sign National Letter of Intent

Three girls lacrosse players have been offered Division I scholarships to the college of their choice.

held its first ever National Signing Day for three girls lacrosse players who were offered Division I athletic scholarships to the college of their choice.

Students, athletes, school administrators and parents attended the ceremony, held at the front lobby of the school, as Hayley Kerr, Kaitlyn Brown and Chrissy Commons signed the National Letter of Intent during the NCAA early signing period.

“This is the first time I can remember — and I remember way back when — that we’ve had athletes that have committed early to a college or university to play a sport,” said Stephanie Joannon, Schreiber's director of health, education and athletics. “These girls will be offered scholarships by the university, and they are committed to play for the next year, so this is pretty special.”

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Hayley Kerr will be attending the University of Southern California. Kaitlyn Brown will be attending Marist College. Chrissy Commons will be attending Hofstra University, the alumni of her coaches, Raquel Piraino and Mary Romano.

 “I’m very excited to sign officially, I’ve been waiting three years now to pick the school that’s right for me,” said Brown. “I looked at five other schools that I was very interested in. And then I visited Marist this past summer and I fell in love with the campus, and the coach was absolutely amazing.”

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Before the official signing took place, teachers ran up to the three athletes and asked for their autographs for when they “become famous one day.”

“To have any student receive a National Letter of Intent to a top college is really special – to have three in one year is really something the coaches can be so proud of,” said Superintendent Dr. Geoffrey Gordon. “Academics, the arts, athletics and volunteerism, these girls represent all of those things and it’s a great credit for them for what they accomplished and we’re very, very proud of them.”

After signing their National Letter of Intent simultaneously, and receiving cheers and claps from the audience, the girls made very short thank you speeches.

“I just want to thank our coaches especially because they’re the ones that brought us here," Kerr said. "One day Piraino and Romano called me over during practice and they go, ‘Hayley, you know you could be a Division I lacrosse player,’ and that stuck in my head forever.”

Commons spoke next, thanking her parents and coaches for “everything.” Brown followed up, teary-eyed as she thanked her mother.

“I’m actually very excited for her,” said Brown’s mother, Kathy. “She’s worked very hard to get to this point in her life and she loves the school. I’m just really happy for her and hope for more and more successes as she goes on.”  

After the ceremony, the girls took pictures and answered questions before enjoying some cookies down the hall.

“We’re ecstatic,” Pirano said. “Other kids want to be them now, and they believed us when we recruited and really reached out to them and said hang in there, stick with it, you’re going to see the results and luckily because we had such awesome kids we saw the results a lot quicker.”  

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