MORGANTOWN — Sometimes, student-athletes find their perfect college home.
And other times, the perfect college finds them.
Seven University High School seniors signed to continue their athletic careers at the next level Wednesday morning during a ceremony at the school. Signing their letters of intent Wednesday morning were football players Luke Hudson (Waynesburg), Seth Drvar (Glenville State), Trey Blunt (Waynesburg) and Melique Lewis (West Liberty), baseball player Duke Seggie (Community College of Baltimore County Essex), pole vaulter Ava Cash (West Liberty) and lacrosse player Connor Montgomery (Illinois Institute of Technology).
Some, like Lewis, always knew they wanted to play college sports and just needed to work hard enough to get there.
“I had always wanted to go to college to play football, I just never knew where,” said Lewis, who will play defensive tackle for the Hilltoppers. “I knew I had to work for it and be better than most of my competition. It didn’t really start happening until about my junior year when I thought I could really be serious about college football.”
Others, like Cash, didn’t start thinking about being a college athlete until just recently.
“Not even until a month or two ago,” said Cash, who will also be a Hilltopper. “They kind of reached out unexpectedly. I thought I was just going to go to WVU and get a major.”
Cash’s recruiting experience mirrors how she got into pole vaulting in the first place.
“My coach kind of tracked me down freshman year and got me into it,” she said. “It takes a lot of hard work. You have to be a little crazy, too, to do it.”
Something similar happened to Seggie, who was tracked down by a CCBC coach after a showcase.
“I went to a showcase in Virginia and as soon as I got there the coach came up and asked me a bunch of questions,” Seggie said. “He liked my ability to catch and wanted me to come play for him.”
Seggie is playing first base this season for UHS but will be behind the plate at the next level.
Lewis, on the other hand, is following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, who both played college football at WVU.
“They always told me that I’d have to work hard,” he said, “that I’d have to commit everything and there’d be some things I would have to miss out on because I’ve got to work harder than everybody else. They’ve always told me that when you’re on the field, you have to play with confidence and believe that you’re the best player out there.”
Lewis’ defensive linemate, Blunt, said he only started thinking about playing in college during his junior season.
“Right in the middle of it, I had like an awakening that I need to be focused and get the job done,” Blunt said.
Blunt is making the short trip north across the state border to join the Yellowjackets.
“Mainly the factors were teammates, family and how far it is back and forth,” Blunt said. “My friend (UHS graduate Jacob Stevens) plays there and he told me to take a visit to Waynesburg just to see how I like it and it just really clicked to me that it was home.”
Joining Blunt at Waynesburg will be quarterback Luke Hudson. Like Blunt, Hudson knows someone who pitched him on joining the program.
“I worked with a coach (Gabe Luvara) starting my sophomore year, he was the coach at a school in Latrobe, Pa. (Robert Morris),” Hudson explained. “Over the summer, he got a new job at Waynesburg and he gave me the initial push.”
Rounding out the Hawks’ quartet of football signees is center Seth Drvar, who will suit up for Glenville State.
“When I went to Glenville, it just felt like they really wanted me there. They were really persistent and came to the school three or four times,” Drvar said. “I had schools talking to me that were only an hour, half-an-hour away; Glenville is an hour-and-a-half and they really made it a point to come see me. That really goes far and it was really the ultimate thing in my decision.”
Montgomery, who missed Wednesday’s ceremony while taking an AP exam, is heading to the Illinois Institute of Technology for lacrosse after a standout high school career with the Hawks.
Wednesday’s seven signees gave UHS 27 for the 2024 graduating class, just shy of the school record of 29, according to athletic director Jeff Bailey.
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