Water polo players highlight National Letter of Intent signing day
Coach Bill Barnett made sure not to miss a ceremony in Newport Harbor High’s gym on Wednesday.
He sat quietly as five of his girls’ water polo players posed for photos and signed a National Letter of Intent. This proves to be a special group of seniors for Barnett, the legendary coach who is in his final season of coaching at Newport Harbor.
“I put in a lot of hours with these girls,” Barnett said. “I’m very proud of them.”
Barnett, who said this is his 49th year of coaching, posed for photos with the girls. They, of course, smiled because this was a great time to celebrate.
The Newport Harbor seniors Carlee Kapana (UCLA), Rachel Whitelegge (UCLA), Kate Pipkin (Indiana), Chanel Schilling (UC San Diego) and Isabel Leveque (Marist College) highlighted Wednesday’s National of Letter of Intent signing ceremonies in Newport-Mesa.
Schilling thought it was “super cool,” to be in the ceremony with her teammates. The five girls said they are excited to play their final season with Barnett and his final season.
“He wants to go out with a hurrah,” Whitelegge said. “We want to go out with a hurrah.”
Brian Melstrom, who will be the next girls’ water polo coach for the Sailors, attended the ceremony, as did several girls’ water polo teammates and family.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling to sit there next to them,” Leveque said of signing with her teammates. “I basically played with them my whole life. Getting to play in college is cool and playing against them will be even cooler.”
The girls’ water polo players were not the only student-athletes to sign on Wednesday. Tennis standout Reese Stalder (Texas Christian), swimmer Hayden Hemmens (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Charles Padden (water polo, UC Santa Barbara) and Alyssa Randall (crew, Southern Methodist) also signed at Newport Harbor.
Hayley Hodson, who starred as a girls’ volleyball player at Corona del Mar High for three years and now attends Laurel Springs High, signed to play at Stanford. She was recently named PrepVolleyball.com’s No. 1 Senior Ace recruit.
She will play the 2015 club season with TStreet Volleyball Club in Irvine.
At CdM, girls’ water polo players Averi Westerman (UC San Diego), Grace Morgan (Cal) and Sami Pratt (Michigan) were featured during a ceremony.
Sea Kings senior Ryan Moss (volleyball) signed to play at USC.
Moss’ senior teammates Augie Miller (Pepperdine) and Kevin Fults (UC Santa Barbara) made verbal commitments to play volleyball on the next level.
“It was a great day for CdM volleyball,” Coach Steve Conti said.
Sage Hill School senior Parker Reposa verbally committed to play baseball for Middlebury College in Vermont.