Four local schools honor Class of 2023 athletes formally committing to college
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (April 26, 2023) — Carondelet, Northgate, Clayton Valley Charter and De La Salle high schools celebrated 17 senior student athletes this spring who signed their National Letters of Intent to play their sport starting in the fall at 16 colleges from coast to coast.
The signees will be playing 11 different sports in college including soccer, acrobatics and tumbling, swimming, basketball, competitive cheer, water polo, rugby, wrestling, volleyball, track and cross country.
Besides Northern and Southern California, college signees are headed for Massachusetts, Washington, Montana, Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and Michigan to further their academic and athletic pursuits.
Spring NLI signees
(sport and college)
Carondelet
- Mariana Aiello (Acrobatics & Tumbling, Caldwell University)
- Jenna Davis (Swimming, Chapman University)
- Macy Lehrer (Soccer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Lara Meeks (Competitive Cheer and Stunt, Davenport University)
Clayton Valley Charter
- Emily Beeson (Soccer, Adams State University)
- Laura Fribley (Soccer, Thomas College)
- Jake King (Basketball, William Jessup University
- Isabelle Ruff (Cross Country and Track, Carroll College)
- Adrian Salamasidis (Volleyball, St. Andrews University)
De La Salle
- Ryan Cesmat (Swimming, Seattle University)
- Atri Feizi (Wrestling, Menlo College)
- Ben Gronbach (Water Polo, University of the Pacific)
- Billy Haggerty (Basketball, UC San Diego)
- Joey Manzone (Rugby, Saint Mary’s College)
- Tommy Rainsford (Rugby, Cal Berkeley)
Northgate
- Megan Malloy (Cross Country and Track, Chico State)
- Emilio Pucci (Football, Chapman University)
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Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.