By Miguel A. Melendez, Staff Writer
Pasadena Poly’s Jordan Kutzer and St. Francis’ David Hubinger played on the same all-star baseball team when they were 10 years old.
Seven years later, the duo almost landed at the same college before Hubinger ultimately signed with Pepperdine, while Kutzer chose Stanford.
They are two of 16 area athletes who signed national letters of intent Wednesday, the first day of the Fall Signing Period for all sports except football, boys and girls soccer and boys water polo.
It was a proud moment for the group, whose members at some point crossed paths despite playing various sports and formed long-lasting friendships, including six softball players and five volleyball players.
La Caada’s Anna Edwards (Northwestern), La Salle’s Sterling Shuster (Loyola Marymount), Maranatha’s Annie Sommers (Boston College), Mayfield’s Katie Clancy (Belmont University) and Temple City’s Jessica Loicano (North Dakota) play on the same travel softball team, Velocity 18U Gold, which is based in the San Gabriel Valley.
Edwards, who batted .580 with 35 RBIs and nine home runs last season, said choosing Northwestern over Michigan and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo came easy because of the school’s close-knit environment.
Shuster, who led the Lancers to a CIF-Southern Section Division 6 championship last season, said Loyola Marymount offered the best of both worlds – top Division I competition in softball and an opportunity to study film at the industry’s epicenter.
“There’s no better place than L.A. for film,” she said. “I committed at the end of my sophomore season, and that ended the recruiting process for me.”
Sommers, an All-CIF and Star-News All-Area standout for the Minutemen, said the rich sports tradition at Boston College won her over.
“It offers a perfect balance with sports and social setting,” she said.
Clancy, a pitching sensation with a 0.76 ERA, 19 wins and 254 strikeouts, said her love for country music was an added bonus when she signed with Nashville’s Belmont University. Loicano, who led the Rams in batting average (.379) and home runs (5), said North Dakota provided a good environment to learn, as well as a program that would allow her to compete right away.
La Caada’s Lauren O’Leary (Georgetown) is the other softball standout in the group and led the Spartans in strikeouts (165) and wins (19) last season. She said Georgetown was tops on her list, and an official visit there confirmed that.
CLICK ON THREAD TO CONTINUE READING AND FOR PHOTOS OF INDIVIDUAL SIGNINGS
Above: Seated: Pete Kutzer, Jordan Kutzer, Rebecca Kutzer. Front: Miles Caldwell, Kate Kutzer, Ellie Kutzer. (Photo courtesy of Kutzer family)
Above: David Hubinger Sr., left, Janine Hubinger, right, and St. Francis catcher David Hubinger, seated, after signing with Pepperdine. (Photo courtesy of Hubinger family)
Flintridge Sacred Heart produced three volleyball players in Camille Coffey (Fairfield University), Alyssa Walton (University of Delaware) and Chloe Tom (Tulane), who are ready for the big stage. Monrovia’s Tirah Le’Au (Georgia) and Mayfield’s Hannah Schraer (USC) round out the other volleyball players.
Coffey said Fairfield offers a small-town feel and small class sizes were enticing. Walton said a change in scenery was calling her and the East Coast provided that change.
Tom, who also is a standout tennis player, applied early at Tulane and will begin classes in January.
“I just wanted to get a head start and get a feel for college life,” she said. “I wanted to ease into the system, and it’s always fun to be in the city of New Orleans.”
Le’Au comes from a long list of relatives who’ve gone on to play various sports throughout the Pac-10 Conference, but she’ll be the first in her immediate family to play at a major Division I school. Le’Au said Georgia’s family atmosphere and southern charm beat out Oregon, Florida State and Arizona State.
Schraer will follow in her father’s footsteps when she dons cardinal and gold at USC next fall.
“It’s a great program in a competitive conference,” said Schraer, an All-CIF and Star-News All-Area honoree.
Schraer quipped, “I was born into USC colors, so I didn’t really have a choice.”
Flintridge Sacred Heart’s Emily Boyd will begin her quest for the Olympics as a diver when she attends Michigan while La Salle’s Andrew Barmann begins his road there at UC Santa Barbara.
Boyd focused on schools with strong aquatic programs and fielded offers from Notre Dame, Purdue and Texas, but the fact that Michigan has a strong connection with the U.S. Olympic diving team made it an easy decision for her.
Barmann started talking with UC Santa Barbara coaches over the summer, but it wasn’t until last week that he made an official visit. He committed Tuesday and signed his letter of intent Wednesday morning.
Kenyatta Smith, a 6-foot-9, 260-pound center on the Flintridge Prep basketball team, will play at Harvard. His footwork and close-range shooting improved the summer after his sophomore season, he led the Rebels to a Prep League championship and he went on to average 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Vanderbilt, Penn and Northwestern made a strong push for him, but the idea of raising Harvard’s basketball program was too much to pass up.
“I want to help start something special there,” Smith said. “To start from scratch and make our own legacy in basketball made it easy to decide to go there.”
For Hubinger, the idea of playing in front of friends and family ultimately won him over to Pepperdine. Stanford was among the schools Hubinger, an All-CIF and Star-News All-Area honoree as the Mission League’s best catcher, pondered, nearly joining Kutzer there.
Kutzer’s decision to join Stanford came easy despite fielding 30 offers, including those from Duke and USC.
“The one thing I kept hearing from all these schools is they wanted to emulate themselves like Stanford,” he said. “So I said, `Why not just go to Stanford?’
“I also based my decision on which school I wanted to be at in case I ever had, say, a season-ending injury, and it all came down to Stanford.”
Kutzer, a 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher, broke family tradition when he chose Stanford over the other Bay Area school, Cal, the school his parents attended. The decision was all his, though, and the fact that Rusty Filter joined Stanford’s coaching staff as pitching coach made it an added bonus. Filter was the University of San Diego pitching coach who guided Stephen Strasburg before he was selected as the 2009 top overall pick by the Washington Nationals.
miguel.melendez@sgvn.com
