Three Tri-Cities players make college decisions
A trio of softball players from Tri-Cities schools recently committed to Division I schools.
Ryanne Rokos, a senior at Batavia, committed to Bucknell University. St. Charles East senior Olivia Cheatham chose Evansville University.
Jordyn Wolfe, a sophomore at St. Charles North, committed to Louisville.
"The main reason I picked it was the first thing I did when I visited was meet with the softball coaches, but then the next thing was meet with the academic adviser," Wolfe said. "He had all kinds of great things to offer me. He was talking about how he meets with his athletes weekly and talks about grades. I like how he keeps his athletes focused on academics because academics obviously comes first. I really like how they make sure athletics come after academics."
Wolfe said she is planning on studying education. She also looked at Illinois State, Northern Illinois and Ball State, among others.
"When I went to Louisville it just really clicked and I felt at home there," Wolfe said.
After playing soccer and basketball when she was younger, Wolfe didn't start softball until sixth grade when she was driving home with her father Bill from a soccer practice.
"I saw a sign for softball and told my dad I wanted to try," said Wolfe, whose father played college football at Carthage and whose grandfather played football at the University of Illinois with Dick Butkus.
After a couple successful seasons for the Wasco Diamonds and now the Beverly Bandits, the rest is history. Wolfe played varsity for the North Stars last year as a freshman and learned a lot from two-time All-Area captain Sabrina Rabin, now at Northwestern, a slapper like Wolfe.
"She was one of the first people I called when I committed," Wolfe said. "Last year as a freshman it was like a family. Sabrina took me under her wings. I look up to her. The coaches are great. I love (head coach Tom) Poulin. We have a good group of girls and we're lucky to have such a great high school. I'm going to try to help the team as much as I can. We all have one goal which is to win."
Cheatham had several reasons to choose Evansville. It didn't hurt that her St. Charles East teammate Alex Latoria committed there this summer.
Cheatham and Latoria started playing softball on the same rec team when they were 7, and not only do they play together at St. Charles East - including helping the Saints get to state as sophomores - they are on the same travel team with the Bartlett Silverhawks.
"We'll get to play our first game together and our last game together," Cheatham said.
Cheatham, the first in her family to play college sports, plans to study elementary education. She also considered Western Michigan and Olivet Nazarene.
"I loved it (Evansville) instantly and it felt like the right fit for me," Cheatham said. "It was so exciting. I was so relieved to know where I was going next year."