COMMITTED!

Exploring the journeys of three college recruits for their respective sports

Alexa Baxter

Senior Alexa Baxter committed to the California Institute of Technology to pursue both her academic and soccer career. While it was not her initial goal to get recruited to play a sport, due to the time commitment, she took up this opportunity as Caltech was rated well academically.

“Soccer is a way for me to get away from school for a little bit [and] focus on something else,” Baxter said. “I like [the] teamwork that’s playing into the sport and you can make some really good friends on your team. I don’t really want to [play] soccer past college. It’s not a goal of mine, but I [can] hopefully help the team to score more goals.”

Hayden Ancheta

When senior Hayden Ancheta initially started his college recruiting process, he received multiple offers from a variety of colleges and universities. For Ancheta, this wasn’t a surprise, and eventually, he chose SFSU, which provided a balance between all the aspects he considered while deciding which university to attend.

“I could possibly be competing at a world championship in a year or two years — that’s one of the bucket list [items] I just want to check off,” Ancheta said. “It’s actually insane how the opportunity is just right there in front of me. I want to be an NCAA champion. I want to win the Olympics. I just want to experience this sport at the highest level.”

Ryan Tang

Senior Ryan Tang committed to Occidental College to play Division III Men’s Water Polo, and although he wasn’t initially going to pursue the sport after high school, his coach motivated him to consider it as an option. An Occidental College coach came to watch Tang play to consider him as a potential recruited athlete.

“My coach told me about [Occidental] because one of his kids went there and they loved it, so we reached out to the coach to come watch me play,” Tang said. “In that game, under the pressure of being watched, I was able to play well and built a relationship with the Occidental coach.”