MT. ZION, Ill. (WAND) - The Braves community continues to provide academic and athletic excellence, as 6 Mt. Zion students signed-on Wednesday to continue further their sports careers at the next level.
In a ceremony in the school's auditorium, student-athletes representing four different Braves' programs walked on the stage with family members and coaches to ink their futures.
Ty Ball will go and compete at Illinois College with the school's volleyball team and is considering a major in Elementary Education.
Three softball players are off to compete in college. Rachel Besser is off to Missouri Baptist University and will study Criminal Justice and Psychology. Her teammates Nikki Ellegood and Ellie Greene will represent Moberly Area Community College. Ellegood will begin General Studies, while Greene plans to study Sports Therapy.
Sydney Cannon will join Millikin University as part of the inaugural women's wrestling program. She intends to study Elementary Education with an endorsement of Special Ed and a minor in Creative Media.
Furthering his football career, Broden Reynolds takes his talents to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. During his time in college, he intends to study Business Finance.
A common theme among each of the signees for why they chose their new schools was the sense of home they felt when visiting their future programs. The importance of community is something each of them has felt throughout their time as a Brave and is an important value to them for the next stage of their journey.
Reynolds recalled his time as a football player and going to the 4A state championship as a junior.
"The amount of fans that we bring to just our high school games, the community just really comes together in that type of way," he said. "I think football in a small town is a huge thing and everything that we brought was just awesome. The people here, the small town vibe - it's a really good thing to have."
Ball also added that her nerves of finding a new home were eased when she visited Illinois College's campus.
"It felt more like home so it felt more familiar," she says. "I guess that'll make it easiest to transition going to a school farther away from family."
A seventh signee, football standout JC Anderson, is also part of the Fall signing class at Mt. Zion. However, due to coaching changes at his initial commitment, Ole Miss, he now intends to sign with Louisiana State on Friday, December 5.
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