Tigers Roaring On To College Athletic Programs

By Space Coast Daily // May 3, 2012

Next Level

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – About 21 percent of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy’s graduating class will be suiting up in college uniforms come fall.

springsigning — Holy Trinity athletes gathered this spring to sign letters of intent to play college sports this fall. (Image courtesy of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy)

Senior volleyball player Jackie of the Tigers doesn’t spend her Saturday mornings sleeping in or keeping up her Facebook friends, she she spends it at the gym with her trainer, Eric Murray.

For one of her recent workouts, Murray weighed her down with a 20-pound belt and had Jackie practice her vertical skills by jumping to reach a 10-foot-high bar.

The hard work is paying off.

Swalchik recently received a college scholarship to play volleyball at the University of Florida, one of the top programs in the country.

That’s no easy feat: according to the American College Connection, considering almost 400,000 girls in the U.S. play high school volleyball.

Less than 3 percent of them will receive a college Division I or Division II scholarship.

In addition to her vigorous training and support of her coaches and trainer, Swalchik credits the academic rigors at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, where she matriculated in the 6th grade.

MAYE-180 — Holy Trinity's Marcus Maye will play football for the University of Florida this fall. (Image courtesy of Holy Trinity)

“Keeping up with the academic requirements taught me discipline and organization, and that definitely helped my athletic performance,” Swalchik said.

Athletic Skills Pay Off For 14 Seniors at Holy Trinity

• Jos Chalmers will be cycling at Marian University

• Marcus Maye will play football at the University of Florida

• Anthony Storm will play football at Florida Tech

• Daniel Moore willl run cross country at Duke

• Alex Black will swim for Marshall University

• Sophia Peterson will play volleyball at Xavier University

• Cedric Plummer will play football at Florida Tech

• Joey Castagnaro will cross country/track at Florida State University

• Joey Ballack will play basketball at Penn State University-Behrand

• Megan Moon will be a cheerleader at Florida Gulf Coast

• Raleigh Sims will play basketball for Luther College

• India Adams will run track at the University of North Florida

Two Holy Trinity student-athletes are still making final decisions from their offers. Alex Hoffman is looking to compete in cross country/track and TJ Simon in basketball.

Alsion Bell, Holy Trinity’s director of college counseling, anticipates that about 21 percent of the class will go on to play their sport in college.

“The reason these students are so highly desirable as that they are well rounded students,” she said.

“It’s the perfect combination of grades, character and leadership.”