Today was another special day at Bolles for our great student-athletes. Fifteen Bolles student-athletes were honored today for committing to continue their athletic and academic careers at a college or university. 

 The ceremony took place in our Davis Gym.  Here is a picture while parents are arriving and we are waiting for the student-athletes to come out of class for their activities period.

Today we honored the following Bolles student-athletes:

Boys’ Swimming
Santo Condorelli, University of Southern California
Emiro Goossen, University of Florida
Ryan Murphy, University of California, Berkeley
Brad Stamper, Indiana University, Bloomington

Girls’ Swimming
Kourtney Gavin, Florida Southern College
Smacker Miles, University of Texas
Genevieve Miller, United States Air Force Academy
Ashley Neidigh, Auburn University
Chandler Soapes, University of Florida
Ali Talwar, Tulane University

Boys’ Tennis
Joey Bove, The Citadel
Hunter Geddes, The Citadel

Softball
Cayla Levins, Murray State University

Boys’ Lacrosse
Davis Lindsey, Denison University

Girls’ Golf
Mia Zanghetti, College of William & Mary 

This day is always an emotional day just thinking that in few months we will not be able to coach, mentor and enjoy this group of kids.  But that is part of life and part of the job we have and as one of the coaches that has had the opportunity and privilege to work with these student-athletes and their families, I will always be thankful to them for this great opportunity. I have seen many of these kids these past six years running around the campus and the pool deck and I have great memories from each one of them for the rest of my life.

As I said in my speech (always ready to speak in public) each one of the student-athletes has been exposed to excellence in the classroom and in the pool and I have no doubts in my mind that Bolles has prepared them to be succesful at the highest level as student-athletes.  They will be amazing Ambassadors for Bolles and they will lead the Universities to excellence.  CONGRATS!!!

Interesting Fact: Bolles graduates participate in college athletics at a significantly higher rate than the national average. In the last four years, 19 percent of Bolles graduates have continued their athletics careers at the varsity collegiate level in a wide variety of sports in every collegiate division. Nationally, according to recent data from ScholarshipStats.com, the chance of high school student-athletes participating in college sports is less than eight percent.

I believe we have close to a 100% of our swimmers becoming student-athletes in college.  Here you can see the Bolles & Bolles Sharks swimmers that went on to college since 2007-08: http://www.bollesswimming.org/SubTabGeneric.jsp?team=flbss&_stabid_=13556 

CONGRATS & GO BOLLES!!!