On Nov. 14, high school students across the nation officially signed to their college of choice to continue their athletic and academic careers. Senior Sam Cary will attend the University of Iowa to pursue her dream of playing Division 1 soccer.

“I am excited to start a new chapter of my life. Playing college athletics has always been a dream of mine,” Cary said.

Unlike many athletes on Signing Day, not everyone knows where they are attending until the day of. However, Sam Cary verbally committed in October of her sophomore year.

“It’s nice to get it [the signing] out of the way. Plus, I was able to choose my high school classes that will count towards college credits at Iowa.

Cary has put in long hours of work, but her work ethic has been the ultimate reason for her success. Cary’s presence on and off the field provides the team with a boost of chemistry that not all teams have.

“Sam has the drive to do well. Every game, she expects the best out of her team and herself,” high school coach, Larry Scheller said. ”She is the ultimate leader and her teammates feed off of her positive attitude, which makes the team better”.

In return, her teammates have provided Sam with much support throughout her recruiting process with balancing academics and athletics. With some of her teammates also currently going through the recruiting process, Sam’s teammates have been able to help out with any questions as they go through the process of college signing.

“I felt I could really relate with my other teammates, and help them out with their recruiting choices,” Cary said.

As college soccer approaches, Cary has continued to think about her future. At the University of Iowa, Cary is double majoring in Health and Human Physiology and Journalism and Mass Communications. She also is a high-level soccer referee, who referees at the national high school level.

“I am excited to see where my future takes me,” Cary said.

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, senior Abbie Miller officially committed to continue her academic and athletic career at Saint Louis University. She has been verbally committed since second semester of her sophomore, but made it official today. She will be competing with Francis Howell North for one final season before she starts attending SLU in the fall.

“I think since my freshman year when we first started talking about recruitment I realized that I wanted to play soccer in college,” Miller said. “I originally wanted to go to a school far away, but ended up staying very close with SLU.”

During her three year run at FHN, Miller has had a total of 21 goals and 19 assists. She has spent all her seasons on varsity. Some of the honors she has earned while on the team includes 2nd team all-conference (‘15), 1st team all-conference, all-region, and all-state (‘17 & ‘18) and GAC Player of the Year (‘18). She was also a team captain last year and plans to be one again this year.

“She’s an outstanding fundamental team player,” head coach Mark Olwig said. “I think that she will do great in college. I think that any time you enter a new program there’s going to be a learning curve, but she has all the tools and skills to be very successful.”

Saint Louis University is a private college just outside of downtown Saint Louis. As of 2014, the university had just over 13,000 people attend. The school is in the Atlantic 10 conference. Last season, their women’s soccer went 18-4-1, going undefeated in both conference and at home games. The ladies made it all the way to the championship game, where they lost 2-1 to Kansas University.

“The university just felt like home. It felt like I was far away from home, but it actually is only 30 minutes away,” Miller said. “Along with that, I just really enjoyed the coaches and the team.”