MORGANTOWN — Some student-athletes know exactly where they want to go to college from the get-go, some decide at the last minute and others have their plans thrown off the tracks entirely.
Such was the case Wednesday morning, when four Morgantown High School seniors signed their national letters of intent, setting their collegiate careers into motion.
First was Emily Lattea, who signed to play women’s soccer at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“As soon as I stepped on campus and met Coach Noreen (Herlihy) for the first time, it was a perfect fit,” Lattea said. “The campus size is great and the way Noreen cares about you as a player off the field is amazing.”
Lattea was a member of this year’s state-title-winning MHS girls’ soccer team, although an injury kept her on the sidelines as the Mohigans won the title.
“Being on the sideline, I learned just to be a leader in any way that I can,” she said. “At IUP I’m just going to fill any role I have to and do whatever I can to help out the team.”
Lattea decided early that she wanted to play in college. Others who signed on Wednesday, however, took their time.
“I decided (Tuesday),” pole-vaulter Morgan Ryan said. “I called the coach yesterday afternoon and said I’d love to come.”
The coach Ryan called one day before signing was Matt Belfield at the University of Vermont. Ryan said she made her decision after visiting a different college.
“I had been wanting to decide for a while,” Ryan said. “I’m not someone who usually procrastinates a decision so it was stressing me out. I just got back from a visit to a different school this weekend and that’s when it hit me I definitely want to go to Vermont.
“The area is absolutely beautiful. Something just draws me up there. … Coach Belfield has helped me out through the whole process and I think it’ll be a new home.”
While not waiting as long as Ryan, girls’ basketball player Mia Henkins didn’t decide to play collegiately until after MHS had won its state title last month.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play for a while. I was kind of back and forth with staying here and going to WVU or going somewhere to play,” Henkins said. “My goal was, after the state tournament, to figure out how I felt about basketball, but the day after the state championship I was like ‘I need to play basketball in college, I cannot be done here.’”
Henkins said winning the state championship as a senior made her want to continue playing basketball, ultimately signing with nearby Waynesburg University.
“I think going off on such a good note made me realize how much I love the sport and it kind of made me realize I am going to have more fun if I pursue the dream of playing basketball in college,” she said.
Henkins will carry on a family tradition at Waynesburg. Not only did her dad, Adam, play basketball for the Yellow Jackets from 1994-98, her cousin, Chase, was a freshman on the men’s team this winter.
“He actually wasn’t that pushy,” Henkins said of her father. “I figured he would really be for Waynesburg, but he was open to all my options and was just really supportive of wherever I wanted to go.”
The student-athlete with the most-winding journey to college, however, was baseball catcher Ty Galusky. After two surgeries on his throwing arm took away a chunk of his high school career, Galusky signed to play baseball at Fort Scott Community College on Wednesday.
“I’ve been through two arm surgeries, so going to a four-year college, especially with how much I’ve missed, would’ve been tough,” he said. “I was thinking to go to junior college, get healthy, get back to where I could’ve been minus the injuries and move on from there.”
Galuksy admitted that it would have been easiest just to give up on baseball after his injuries, especially the second one.
“I tore my UCL, came off six months of rehab and got to play half of my high school season and it started hurting again,” he said. “I could’ve thrown the towel in then, but it was just waking up, grinding every day and getting to where I needed to be.”
He said it was the support system around him that allowed him to get to where he is now.
“I’ve had amazing people around me who have helped me through it,” Galuksy said. “I can’t take too much credit because what the people around me — coaches, parents, doctors, therapists — have done for me is unbelievable. I’m really lucky to be playing.”
All four signees on Wednesday had either already won a state title this year (Lattea, Henkins) or hope to this spring. Ryan is currently the number-one ranked pole-vaulter in the state and the MHS baseball team is ranked in the top-10 in Class AAA.
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