By Chase Bayless ’15 & J.P. Hajjar ’16
THE ROUNDUP
With graduation on the horizon, eight senior athletes have committed to continue playing their sport at the collegiate level.
Seven of the eight commits signed letters of intent on National Signing Day Wednesday, Feb. 5, while another committed later.
Austin Todd (AT) Hall ’14, an offensive lineman, committed to Stanford in late July of 2013 prior to his senior football season.
“Why not? I mean, you get to go have a world class education, an Ivy League education, live in California where the weather is perfect, play major Division I football and they are pretty good,” Hall said when asked about why he chose Stanford. “I just think it’s the total package for me, personally and it has always been a dream, so as soon as it happened, I took it and rolled with it.”
Fellow teammate C.J. Keller ’14 will be joining Hall at Stanford as a long snapper.
The third and final football player to commit to a university was Brian Woodward ’14.
He received a late offer from South Dakota and committed to play quarterback for the Division I FCS school.
Woodward was the starting quarterback and safety for the varsity teams this season.
In 2012, three-year varsity baseball player Ryan Castellani ’14 verbally committed to University of California, Los Angeles.
But this year the versatile pitcher, outfielder and first baseman flipped his commitment to Arizona State University.
Castellani also played football, but decided to pursue baseball.
According to a Roundup article from November, Castellani said he visited ASU again and it was simply a gut feeling to make the switch.
After helping lead the Broncos to a track and field state championship, sprinter and hurdler Bobby Grant ’14 decided to continue his track career at University of Miami.
The soon-to-be Hurricane was one of the top runners in Arizona last year, finishing 2nd in the 300-hurdles and 3rd in the 200.
In a Roundup article from February, Grant said “I chose to commit to Miami because the education is great, they’re a top-40 institution, their track team is on the right track and they’re building a whole new facility.”
Golfer Andrew MacMillan ’14 committed to Villanova University to play golf for the Wildcats.
“I chose it because I like the location, in Philadelphia. It’s a big city and academics-wise it’s one of the top schools in the country,” MacMillan said.
He chose Villanova over five other schools.
The final three pledges were lacrosse players Daniel Young-Miller ’14, Braden Gagner ’14 and Brad Nordstrom ’14.
“I want to get out of state. I was either going to choose Westminster or Barrett, go to ASU and play there,” Young-Miller said when asked why he chose Westminster in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Gagner is headed to the University of Detroit Mercy. He said he was excited to play there, but doesn’t plan on pursuing the sport after college.
Goalie Brad Nordstrom ’14, who will attend Fairfield University, rounds out the last of the commitments.
Let us know about more college commitments from the class of 2014. Email us at roundup@brophybroncos.org or send us a Tweet @BrophySports.
