Recently, Montrose had the amazing honor of getting to see athletes Colleen Casey and Caroline Piorkowski sign their National Letter of Intent, which is a contract that future college athletes sign, officially committing them to their schools. NCAA collegiate sports have three levels: Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3, with Division 1 being the highest. Playing a collegiate sport is an honor that only around seven percent of the approximately eight million high school athletes get to have, with less than two percent of high school athletes playing at the Division 1 level. This year, Montrose has two seniors who are a part of the seven percent and one who’s part of the less than two percent. 

Colleen Casey ‘22 committed to playing Division 1 women’s soccer at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. She chose this school because of its strong academics, its small –but not too small– size, its location near the city, and of course, the school’s competitive soccer team. Colleen has been playing soccer since she was four years old. She has been playing for the NEFC soccer club for years. Along with that, she played for her first time on the Montrose Varsity Soccer team this year. She has also been a member of Varsity Basketball and Varsity Lacrosse during her time at Montrose. 

She’s been in communication with college soccer coaches since she was in 8th grade, and she described the cutthroat recruiting process as “taking three more classes on top of school.” The recruiting process as a whole was way different because of Covid-19, especially for athletes in the class of 2022. They were rising juniors in 2020, and junior year is the most popular time for athletes to be recruited. Without the stress of recruitment, she now looks forward to learning from her future teammates and coaches and playing in a highly competitive environment. 

Caroline Piorkowski ‘22 committed to play not only women’s lacrosse but also to run cross country at the Division 3 level for Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. At first, this school wasn’t even one that she thought about attending until her mother brought her, and then she fell in love with it. She loves how close Gordon College is to the beach and the many acres of hiking trails and ponds. However, her favorite part about it was the people. She said that all of the lacrosse players told her that they’d pray for her, and she said: “Surrounding myself with selfless people, who wish nothing but the best, seemed to be a no-brainer for me.” 

Caroline has been playing lacrosse for fourteen years and has been running cross country for many years, too. She played lacrosse for the Bay State Bullets lacrosse club. At the same time, she was also part of Montrose Varsity Cross Country, Basketball, and Lacrosse. In college, Caroline is most looking forward to playing lacrosse with girls who have as much of a passion for it as she does. However, she’ll miss her sports teams at Montrose because of how much she loves her coaches and teammates. She’ll also be double-majoring in psychology and social welfare. After college, she hopes to become a child and family social worker and possibly coach youth lacrosse teams.

Congratulations to Colleen and Caroline, and we wish you good luck next year!

Kristina Klauzinski ‘24, Staff Writer

24kklauzinski@montroseschool.org