Santa Barbara High athletes moving on to NCAA athletics next year, from left to right: Kai Miller, Makenzy Fowler, Collin Dewell, Eve Ettinger, Tess Emerson.
Six Santa Barbara High athletes made their collegiate plans official this week as National Letters of Intent were signed and sent off to their respective colleges of choice.
Dons seniors Eve Ettinger, Tess Emerson, Collin Dewell, Kai Miller and Makenzy Fowler gathered for a signing ceremony at Santa Barbara High on Friday morning.
All five will be NCAA scholarship athletes next year, with Ettinger, Dewell and Fowler playing at Pac-10 schools. Emerson is also staying close to home (Pepperdine) while Miller is heading back east to Boston University to play soccer.
Like Miller, Sanford Spivey will be playing soccer at Boston University next year, but was unable to attend Friday’s ceremony.
Ettinger joins a USC volleyball program that is currently ranked No.6 in the country and has won six national championships. The Trojans produced the No. 1 recruiting class in the country last season.
“It’s going to be really intense but I’m excited for the challenge,” Ettinger said on Friday.
Dewell, an outfielder and pitcher for the Dons baseball team, heads to an Arizona program that has won three national championships. Dewell picked the Wildcats over Pacific and was leaving for Tuscon after the ceremony for his official visit.
Fowler will also be in Arizona next year, but as an Arizona State Sun Devil playing water polo. Fowler said she reached her decision two weeks ago and thanked Dons head coach Mark Walsh for his work at developing her game to get her to the next level.
“It takes so much pressure off,” Fowler said of the upcoming water polo season in which the Dons are looking to improve on their CIF quarterfinal season of a year ago.
While a Pac-10 school, the Sun Devils’ women’s water polo team competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The NCAA title match last season was between two MPSF schools, with USC edging Stanford 10-9.
Miller has actually known that she would be playing in Boston since the spring. The Terriers are ranked No. 17 in the country and just claimed their fourth-straight America East Conference title.
“I always had wanted to go to the East Coast,” Miller said.
Emerson is joining the women’s basketball program at Pepperdine.
