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Student athletes sign on with colleges
Throughout the fall semester, senior baseball and softball players from Brentsville District and Battlefield high schools declared their intentions to continue playing their sports in college.The Tiger softball team earns credit for the most number of declared seniors with three: pitchers Grace Nordan and Devon Hileman and utility player Danielle Zecca.
Brian McBride is the first BDHS baseball standout to announce his intentions, while John-Austin Shepard did the same for the Battlefield baseball team. Brittany Clendenny is the first out of the gate for the Bobcats' softball program.
Clendenny
Known by teammates, friends and fans as "BC," Clendenny is the third Bobcat softball player to earn an athletic scholarship to an NCAA Division I-A school as she signed with Boston University.
Like all the other early signers, Clendenny caught the attention of her college scout through travel ball, playing with the Vienna Stars for the last four years. However, the shortstop has also helped lead Battlefield to consecutive state appearances, including a trip to the title game in 2008.
Boston U. offered the future sports marketing major a progressive scholarship starting at 85 percent for her freshman year. For every year she plays and keeps her grades up, the school will cover an extra five percent of her tuition.
"Boston is a big sports town, so that's what pretty much set it off," she said.
Her Battlefield coach, Joe Schelzo, said Clendenny has made "exceptional" improvements year to year, especially regarding strength.
"She lives and breathes softball. She definitely wears her heart on her sleeve with any team that she's involved in, particularly this one," he said.
Shepard
At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, Shepard stands tall figuratively and literally on the mound for Battlefield.
He recorded 59 strikeouts in a largely relieving role for the Bobcats last year with a fastball that clocks in at just under 90 mph.
Tusculum College (Tennessee) took note of Shepard when he participated in a Georgia showcase as a travel team player.
Simply put, "they liked what they saw," said Shepard, and offered the future engineering major a deal.
Shepard's 3.71 GPA paved the way for him to receive a considerable academic scholarship in addition to the $5,000 the school wanted to give him for athletics.
"It wasn't a really big campus," Shepard said about traveling to Tusculum. "I don't really want to be lost in the crowd in college. I just felt like it would be a nice place to go. It's not too big; you're pretty much going to know everyone around you."
Shepard joins Osbourn softball pitcher Katie Brennan as alumni of the youth travel program Virginia Generals to sign on to Tusculumn. They are among the first four former Generals to ever earn athletic scholarships to college.
Nordan
Entering her fourth year in the pitching circle for the varsity Brentsville softball team, Nordan said she can relax a bit now that she has signed on to play at Liberty University next year.
"It takes a lot of stress out," she said.
As a member of the Glory Gold travel team out of Sterling, Nordan sent in a video of her abilities to the Liberty team and when a tryout of sorts came, she was in it to win it.
"I hit five over the fence and they were just like, 'Wow, come to our school,'" she said.
Nordan pads her basepath prowess (and partial athletic scholarship) with a 3.5 GPA.
She has helped lead the Tigers to Northwestern District titles during the last three years and said she thinks 2010 is the year when Brentsville can finally break into states.
"We have the talent to do it, even more so than usual," she said.
Hileman
Felician College might as well have been in another country to Hileman when their softball coach sent her an email expressing interest in her pitching.
"I didn't know anything about it," she said.
But after a tour of the New Jersey school near New York City, she discovered it suited her well.
"It was small, like Brentsville," she said.
For Hileman, there was no doubt Felician offered the best deal. In fact, it was the only school she even applied for.
"They were all really nice and welcoming," she said. "It felt like home."
Rebounding from a shoulder injury from last season, Hileman secured a partial athletic scholarship to the school, where she plans on majoring in secondary education with a concentration in history.
Like Clendenny, her time with the Vienna Stars helped her lead her high school team charge deep into the playoffs.
Hileman said her team's goal for her last season is to win the state championship.
"Do it the Brentsville way," she said.
Zecca
While Brentsville's pitching has tended to grab headlines, Zecca rose out from the depths as a freshman constantly on the disabled list to being bound for Shenandoah University.
She verbally committed to the D-III school on Nov. 1. Planning to eventually earn a doctorate in physical therapy and a masters in science and athletic training, Zecca earned an academic scholarship thanks in no small part to her 4.1 GPA.
"I really like that it is a small campus," she said of the Winchester school.
Division III schools cannot offer athletic scholarships, but the Glory Gold member plans to continue her softball career there anyway.
That is, of course, after she helps Brentsville realize its team goal of advancing past regions next spring.
"I want to ... at least make it to states," she said.
McBride
If there is a scholarship available for at Longwood University, McBride has found a way to grab it.
The Tiger slugger is set to receive a 25-percent athletic scholarship starting in the fall of 2010 along with boosts for academics (his GPA is at 3.38) and potentially for the Army ROTC program.
Set to major in criminal justice, McBride said the atmosphere of Longwood reminded him a lot of Brentsville, a school known for being top-notch academically and athletically.
"It's not too big," he said of Longwood. "People actually know your name."
McBride mentioned with a grin that the school of about 4,500 students is "65 percent girls" and has a bit of a colonial feel to it.
The Longwood coach told him he was looking for power hitters and saw a potential fit in the Brentsville catcher after McBride sent him a video.
As for Brentsville, he said some of his fondest memories will be making it to states in 2008 and seeing the school be honored for academic success.
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