Numerous athletes at Aragon have fulfilled their dream of playing their sport at a collegiate level. Seniors David Manoa, Sam Bowman, Chanel Joyce, and Sam Hala’ufia are all moving on to play their respective sport in college. Manoa received a scholarship to play football at the University of Hawaii, Bowman will be on Duke’s crew team, Joyce will be playing women’s volleyball at Southern Mississippi, and Hala’ufia will play men’s volleyball at UC Merced.
David Manoa’s journey to the University of Hawaii began in his junior year. Manoa states, “Student athletes are heavily recruited during their junior year. Based on your performance level, word will get out to colleges in some way, form, or fashion. Once you are being recruited as a junior, colleges will tend to follow up with you with high interest.” Manoa continued to put up impressive stats during the football season, and also put in numerous hours outside of school. “I spend anywhere from 12-18 hours per week on football, depending on my school load and other priorites.”
Manoa’s hard work paid off when the University of Hawaii offered him a football scholarship to play at their Divison I program. His dedication to playing football resulted in an easier admissions process. “Since I was so blessed to have colleges interested in me, the admissions process was easy for me because I was able to rely on my athletics to open up opportunities for me to go to college on a scholarship. Manoa says, “I am looking forward to competing with players from all over the country/world. And I’m also looking forward to travelling across the country to play football. Although there are many benefits to being a college athlete, I think it just comes with even more responsibility. Being a collegiate athlete, you represent your family, hometown, school, and your God with every move you make, so you really have to understand that whenever you do something.”
Sam Hala’ufia’s recruitment process began when coaches contacted him via email. “In my situation, coaches actually emailed and contacted me first, after watching a couple of my club tournaments. But if you’re really passionate about a certain school or about playing in college, you can send films to coaches or post them on recruiting sites. After communicating with coaches, I went to visit the three colleges that were interested and met a couple of the coaches. The college visits helped immensely in my decision process because it gave me a visual of where I saw myself going. After weighing my options, I made the decision to play for UC Merced.”
Sam Bowman’s recruiting process also began her junior year. “Generally, the recruiting process for crew starts in late spring of junior year, at which point athletes start emailing different universities and talking with coaches about their rowing programs. During my recruiting season, I was trying to understand what kind of coaching style and rowing program I was interested in being a part of for the next four years. I toured various universities over the summer and met with coaches. Typically, athletes will have a solid top five schools that they’re interested in by the middle to end of the summer. I knew right away I wanted to go to Duke after I had talked with the coaching staff. I went on an official visit to Duke in September. Following my visit, I verbally committed to Duke. I submitted my application to Duke in October, and signed a contract in November. This made the college admissions process much easier. I had to pass a pre-read, which is a preapproval from the admissions department that I met the academic qualifications for the university. From there, coaches are allotted a certain number of spots which they can allocate to athletes.”
Bowman believes, “Life as a college athlete will be very rewarding. Being an athlete in college will help me stay organized, seeing that I have to coordinate between classes, practices, and study time.”
For Chanel Joyce, her coach and counselor had a big role in her recruitment process. Joyce says, “Both my Aragon volleyball coach, Ms. Gennaro, and my club coach Kelsey Stiles have helped me out a ton. I would not be where I am now if it wasn’t for them. From taking videos to talking to recruiters and devoting their time away from families to help me out means the world to me. I can’t thank them enough. The counselors as well have been there for me through everything.”
