This past Wednesday was a big deal for many students across the state—signing day. Three Eaglecrest seniors—Quentin Bowen, Rylee Atteberry, and Elijah Brockman—officially signed the papers to attend their chosen college Wednesday morning.

    Senior Quentin Bowen committed to Colorado Mesa University to play what he has loved doing all throughout high school: football. After visiting a few times, he knew it was the right fit.

   “When I went to go visit with the team it felt a lot like Eaglecrest’s team,” he said. “Everybody seems to have a common goal but at the same time wants to have fun.”

    While signing away oneself to a college may seem nerve-wracking to some, Bowen was actually relieved.

    “There’s a lot of kids still worrying about where they want to go to college and I just signed, and I’m like, ‘I’m there,’” he said. “You can’t turn back after you sign the papers.”

    Senior Elijah Brockman will be heading to Colorado Springs to play football at Air Force Academy because he wanted his future to be set in stone.

    “They’re the only college that could guarantee me a job right after I graduate,” he said. “I plan to graduate the academy with a mechanical engineer degree and then I will be deployed as a developmental engineer, where I’ll be able to test steel and build rockets.”

     Similar to how Bowen felt, Brockman was extremely happy when he officially committed to Air Force Academy.

    “It felt like all of the hard work I’ve done for the past couple of years actually meant something,” Brockman said.

    Senior Rylee Atteberry committed just a little farther away at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina to play soccer. Deciding on this university was a little difficult for her but she was relieved when she finally settled on it.

    “I finally found a place that actually cared; I didn’t feel like an object to them. I didn’t feel like another athlete,” she said. “I felt like a person.”

    Atteberry described her emotions while signing as “surreal,” because it almost felt like a dream come true.

    “I’ve wanted to play college soccer since I was like four years old,” she said. “It is very humbling to be able to do that.”

   Although the three of them all have very different futures ahead of them, they all have worked very hard throughout their high school years to get to the spots they are in now.