Friday on the Millikan campus during lunch, 14 Rams athletes met in the Howard Lyons gym on campus to make their college commitments formal, as Millikan adds another crop of great players to their ever-growing list of collegiate, professional, and Olympic athletes.

The signees, pictured above, are: (L-R, Front Row) Maryann Jones (Cal Lutheran, girls’ soccer), Jon Singleton (Long Beach State, baseball), Cody Hazel (La Verne, baseball), Jonathan Garcia (Cal Baptist, boys’ soccer), Candice Menifee (Carl Albert State, girls’ basketball), Tiffany Bailey (Undecided, girls’ basketball), Jaslyn Cosey (Cal State Fullerton, girls’ basketball).  (L-R, Back Row) Uchenna Agbahiwe (UCSD, shot put and discus), Melissa Matheson (Long Beach State, girls’ water polo), Kierre Beverly (Navarro College, boys’ basketball), Ashley Mitchell (Utah State, girls’ basketball), Michelle Chagolla (Cypress, girls’ basketball).  Not pictured: Eli Martinez (Stonybrook, football) and Joe Morales (La Verne, football).

Millikan girls’ athletic director Gayle Braun, who organized the event, started by welcoming the athletes and their families.  “We appreciate the way you’ve represented Millikan,” she told the outgoing seniors.

Unsurprisingly, the Millikan girls’ basketball team continues to receive attention, thanks in no small part to the extracurricular efforts of coach Lorene Morgan, who’s sent a handful of kids to the next level each of the last few years.  “I think that’s one of my jobs to do,” she said.  “To get them focused and help move them on.”  This year she sends four players off to college to play basketball, including one, Tiffany Bailey, who is still weighing her options with a few Arizona schools.

Very surprising, however, is the sparse representation for the Millikan boys’ soccer team that made it to the CIF finals, with just one athlete, Jon Garcia.  Granted, there aren’t as many university men’s soccer programs as there are programs for other sports, but still—that was a pretty good soccer team.  “I’m definitely excited about the opportunity to keep playing,” said Garcia.  “It did surprise me that more guys didn’t get offers, I thought they’d be right there with me.”

You’ll notice two of the athletes, Jon Singleton and Cody Hazel, were in uniform—that’s because their high school careers were still active, with a CIF quarterfinal match that afternoon.  Singleton has the most complicated situation of all the day’s signees—he’ll be a Dirtbag next season…or he’ll be a professional ball player.  “It’s going to depend on where I get picked,” he said of deciding whether to go to college.  “There isn’t a number it has to be above or below, I’m just going to wait and see, and then I’ll figure it out.”

Congratulations to the signees and to Millikan on a great year!