By TOMMY REZAC and MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Five St. Joseph Central student athletes signed their national letters of intent for college athletics at Central High School on Monday morning.
All five had a joint signing ceremony at the school.
Danielle Burg, a goalkeeper, will play soccer at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. She plans to major in business with the hope of getting into law school at UMKC.
"The college, the campus, it's like a family already," Burg said of Park. "The coach there has already made me feel like family. We've been talking and chatting about the team there. A family environment and a smaller college is what I wanted."
Hannah Watson, a defensive specialist, will play volleyball at McKendree University in Illinois. She plans to major in psychology and minor in sociology.
"It's exciting and I'm proud of all of the athletes at Central who are able to do this," she said. "It's a big deal for all of us and it's cool that (this ceremony) is together."
Anthony Vassar, a receiver, will play football at Iowa Western in Council Bluffs - a team that won a JUCO national title this past season. He plans to study exercise science.
"They've sent countless people to DI (schools)," Vassar said of IWCC. "It does give me another chance to get into DI."
Nathan Mense will play football at William Jewell, while Luke Hass will play football at Graceland University in Iowa.
Mense, who started getting looks collegiately after his junior year, plans to study business to start out with at Jewell.
"I thought overall it was the best fit," Mense said, "looking at all of the schools. They have a new coaching staff in that's really committed to football. There were just too many pros to cons."
Hass will join up with former Missouri Western assistant Colin McQuillan at Graceland. McQuillan, the defensive run game coordinator at Graceland, was an assistant at MWSU from 2010-2012 and again from 2015-17. McQuillan was on the MWSU staff in his first stint together with Regi Trotter, who's been the head coach at Central since 2018.
"Coach McQuillin was a recruiting me and he was a very nice guy," Hass said. "Their facilities and coaching staff are amazing. It just felt like home."
Hass, who switched from tight end to offensive line, will study digital content creation.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @KFEQMatt, Tommy @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.