From left: Miranda Washinawatok, Griffen Rades, Emme Quandt, Sarah Petry, and Connor Klish
Five graduating seniors from Shawano made it official to continue their athletic and academic careers at the collegiate level on Wednesday afternoon.
Four different sports were represented during the signing ceremony and gave Shawano an opportunity to recognize the hard work put forth by the student-athletes.
“This is something that we’ve started new to try and capture those kids who made commitments later in the year,” said Shawano Activities Director Charmaine Schreiber. “We had our first big signing with Zeke Gueths for Division I football, and football has a National Signing Day, so this was just kind of a way for us to capture the rest of those student-athletes making a commitment. They’re not only great athletes, they’re great students, so we’re really proud.”
Boys and girls swimming was represented by a pair of athletes who will continue their athletic careers at the same school. Both Griffen Rades and Emme Quandt will be swimming at Division 3 St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
“I’m excited and happy,” said Rades. “I’m just glad that I can go there. [I’m looking forward to] making friends with a new team and just seeing what records I can beat and how I can do in the state of Minnesota and overall.”
Emme Quandt added that she’s looking forward to seeing a familiar face around her new program
“We’ve been swimming together since we were 9 or 10 years old, so it’s just kind of cool because he’s like my brother,” Quandt said of Rades. “It’s cool I’ll get to see him for another four years in college. I’m also looking forward to seeing the different pools and getting to meet different people who are also collegiate swimmers.”
Sarah Petry will be continuing her softball career at Ripon College in the fall, which will be a dream fulfilled of hers since she can remember.
“I’m pretty excited,” Petry said. “It’s been a dream since I was 8 that I wanted to play college ball and finally being able to say that I can do it is amazing. My junior year after I came back from a shoulder injury, I started getting emails from coaches saying ‘we’re interested in you’ and it increased in the summer, so I thought I better start looking into this.”
Miranda Washinawatok committed to the University of Main at Presque Isle, which she admitted was ultimately a difficult choice, but one she feels confident in.
“I am very honored and blessed because being a minority is not something that always happens, especially going far away to play volleyball, I’m able to share stories and tell experiences that anyone can do it. It came down to the distance. Do I want to be an hour away from home every weekend or do I want to go off and be independent on my own, so that’s why I chose Maine. I can be my own person and know that I still have a home here in Wisconsin.”
