Georgia Bulletin

The Newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta

Atlanta

Area Catholic athletes make intentions known to play college sports

By MICHAEL ALEXANDER, Staff Photographer | Published February 22, 2018

ATLANTA—This year’s National Signing Day took place on Wednesday, Feb. 7. Catholic seniors in public, private and Catholic high schools joined other athletes around the country by making it official when they signed binding national letters of intent to play collegiate sports at the college or university of their choice. The list below includes area Catholic athletes who made commitments on National Signing Day or earlier.

Baseball

Blessed Trinity High School, Roswell: Clark Dearman, Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina.

Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Atlanta: Vinny Antinori, Emmanuel College, Franklin Springs.

Marist School, Atlanta: Charlie Benson, Georgia Tech, Atlanta; Carter Tally, Georgia Tech.

Pinecrest Academy, Cumming: Ben Gobbel, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, North Carolina.

South Forsyth High School, Cumming: Ryan Nolan, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta.

St. Pius X High School, Atlanta: Wesley Diamantis, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama.

Basketball

Holy Spirit Preparatory School: Georgii Maslennikov, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois; Jerique Walker, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Marist School: Diarra Oden, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Our Lady of Mercy High School, Fayetteville: Morgan Jones, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

Cross Country 

Marist School: Knox Pittman, Georgia Tech.

Football

Blessed Trinity High School: Will Carlton, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Peter Renkoski, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.; Jake Rudolph, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Marist School: Dean Johnson, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia; Paul Stanley, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.

Our Lady of Mercy High School: Cam Browning, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana; Javon Henderson, Highland Community College, Highland, Kansas.

Pinecrest Academy: Nolan Stafford, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Pius X High School: Nkem Njoku, The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina.

Golf

Blessed Trinity High School: Tim Mulligan, Berry College, Mount Berry.

Marist School: Owen Burden, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina; Preston DeSantis, Berry College; Braden Jones, University of Georgia, Athens; Jordan Secret, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia.

Lacrosse 

Blessed Trinity High School: Bric Nicholl, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia; Brittney Villauer, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida.

Pinecrest Academy: Molly Dankowski, Mercer University, Macon; Haley Jones, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.

Soccer 

Blessed Trinity High School: Michelle McQuaid, University of Georgia.

Marist School: Kendall Keebaugh, Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina; Haley Lawson, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Pinecrest Academy: Erin Houlihan, Furman University.

Sequoyah High School, Canton: Emily Feyerabend, Anderson University, Anderson, South Carolina.

St. Pius X High School: Dermot Hegarty, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont; Weldon Kolker, University of Georgia; Shea Ponder, Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Emery Wegener, University of Georgia.

Softball 

Marist School: Mattie Ryan, Emory University, Atlanta.

Swimming/diving

Blessed Trinity High School: Ryan Cooper, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington. 

Marist School: Ellie Crump, University of Georgia.

Tennis 

Holy Spirit Preparatory School: Nelson Tyer Jones, The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. 

Track and field 

Blessed Trinity High School: Emma Rose Bagwell, University of Georgia.

Volleyball

Blessed Trinity High School: Courtney Finkle, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut; Marissa Hall, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee; Hanley Lomax, MiraCosta College, Oceanside, California.

St. Pius X High School: Maddie Tippett, Georgia Tech.

Marist School: Cameron Dames, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Krista McNamara, Northwestern University; Mia Stander, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.