Wednesday, Feb. 3 marked the initial signing date for high school football and soccer athletes.
And between Montezuma-Cortez, Dolores and Dove Creek high schools, there were three seniors that put pen to paper and signed a national letter of intent.
M-CHS senior Gabby Wolf plans to play soccer at West Texas A&M University, where her former club coach is now an assistant with the Buffalo.
After taking a trip to the Canyon, Texas school a few months ago, Wolf choose to attend West Texas A&M over offers from a handful of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools.
“I felt really comfortable with the coach and the players and the place,” Wolf said.
With one more high school season to compete in this spring – and after the M-CHS Lady Panthers finished the 2015 season with a 5-10 record – Wolf is hoping for a winning season in her final go-round.
She plans to major in kinesiology.
Dolores senior Nicole Kibel also signed a letter to play college soccer next year. And in a fun coincidence, she also signed with West Texas A&M University.
“It was kind of random,” Wolf said of the two signing with the same school. “But it should be fun that we’re both going there. It’s pretty cool.”
Kibel first gained interest in the Buffalo soccer program over the summer after attending one of their camps.
Although she was also interested in other Texas schools – Baylor University and Lubbock Christian University – the coaching staff is what attracted her to West Texas A&M.
“I just really liked the coach and the atmosphere there,” she said. “And just the fact that he approached me and talked to me.”
In her final high school season with the M-CHS Lady Panthers, Kibel hopes to score as many goals as she did last season (7) and to become a better player.
While attending West Texas A&M, she intends to major in petroleum engineering.
In American football, there was Dove Creek senior Spencer Gatlin, who signed a letter to play football for the University of Northern Colorado.
Gatlin, who played offensive and defensive line for the Dove Creek Bulldogs, first gained interest in the Bears football program during high school football camps hosted on the Greeley campus.
“Then probably towards the ends of my senior season they started talking to me and calling me,” Gatlin said. “But it all started at the camps.”
There were a few other schools Gatlin had interest in, but it came down to the familiarity of the Bears’ program.
“I knew all the coaches, and they seemed like a good group of guys who would be there for me and help me through school,” he said.
Gatlin plans to become a pre-medicine student at UNC.