- April 26, 2024
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When they should be filled to the rafters with pomp and circumstance, the gyms and auditoriums at high schools around the area sit empty.
Normally during this time of the year, schools host their annual spring signing-day events to celebrate student-athletes and the continuation of their academic and athletic careers.
Although the coronavirus pandemic has shut down schools — as well as signing-day events — that doesn’t mean the signings have stopped. Rather, athletes are holding their own in-home signings while the news of their achievements is dispersed throughout social media.
Last year, Foundation Academy junior Danny Stutsman did something no other Lion football player had ever done: He got an offer to play in the SEC.
Since then, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Stutsman — who plays at outside linebacker and tight end for the Lions — has picked up a cornucopia of offers from the likes of Texas A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
On Monday, May 4, he made his college choice via a video on Twitter. He was going with the crimson and cream of the University of Oklahoma.
“I feel like right now, picking the school I want to go to is awesome, and I think it makes me just work harder,” Stutsman said. “It’s just one step closer to my dream.”
The offer from Oklahoma came after a solid performance after the UA All-American camp at the beginning of March.
Although he still will be utilized on both sides of the ball for his senior year at Foundation, Stutsman said he will be put solely on defense at OU at either the Mike or Will linebacker positions. Before he can put on the crimson, however, there is still one last year of Foundation football that needs to be conquered, Stutsman said.
“There is one goal, and that is to win the state championship,” Stutsman said. “I’ve been texting all the kids daily that this is the time to get better now, so whenever this quarantine ends we can hop right into things and become a greater team.”
When it came to the recruiting process, life was stressful for Windermere Prep senior Julia Bernardes.
After moving to the area from Brazil five years ago — which was the same time she picked volleyball — the process of finding a school to play at was completely foreign and frustrating.
“I wanted to play in college — I was so sure of it,” Bernardes said. “Then last year, during the summer of my senior year … the school I really wanted to go to ended up not working out, and I was like, ‘I need to stop. I don’t want to play in college anymore.’”
What followed was a career-changing season with the 18s team at OTVA, for which Bernardes played the best volleyball of her life.
Bernardes eventually received an offer to play both indoor and beach volleyball at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. It was an opportunity she couldn’t turn down, even though she had only visited the campus virtually thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m just excited to be close to home, because last summer when I was looking at colleges, I was set on going to California,” Bernardes said. “I tried to think about it, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so far from home.’ I’m just really happy to be only a few hours from home.”
While some athletes are staying closer to home, others — such as Legacy Charter High seniors Drew Birko and Jacob Worley — are heading out of state.
The duo will be joining the baseball team at Vermilion Community College in Ely, Minnesota — a far cry from the warm weather and beaches of Florida.
“I’m a bit nervous, because it is going to be a lot different than it is here — the average temperature there is 44 degrees, and we get that maybe three times a year,” Birko said with a laugh. “It’ll be quite a bit of a change.”
Although he’ll have to adjust to a different culture, the good news is that Birko will have a familiar face in Worley around.
“It honestly makes things a lot easier, because we’re looking at rooming together and stuff,” Birko said. “I’m excited about that because I’ve grown up with him, so we are pretty close.”
