Eight years ago, Rebekah Hickey watched her older sister Janae commit to compete in track at Master’s College and dreamed of one day following in her footsteps.
“That inspired me because I just loved the sport and wanted to continue to compete at higher levels as I would grow up,” Rebekah said.
On March 4, Hickey was one of six Quakertown seniors recognized for committing to compete in their respective sports at the collegiate level. She will compete in both track and cross country at the Division I level at Rider University where she will major in secondary English education.
“I really loved the team and the coach when I met with them during my visit, and I liked how the campus was on the smaller size,” Hickey said. “The college also has my major, and I really like how it is only about an hour away.
“The recruiting process started my junior year when I first started getting in contact with coaches I was considering running for. Eventually, Rider reached out to me, and after I visited, I committed.”
Maya Hellyer and Katie Muller will play softball at the collegiate level. Hellyer will continue her softball career at Gwynedd Mercy University where she will major in sports management.
“It’s a small campus, close to home and offers everything I’m looking for,” Hellyer said. “I’ve been thinking about playing in college since I was in sixth grade.”
Hellyer began reaching out to various schools as a freshman.
“I later joined a website to help get my name out there and posted videos for colleges to see,” Hellyer said.
Muller will continue her softball career at Lebanon Valley College where she will major in business administration.
“Lebanon Valley has a really strong business program with internships and a great coaching staff,” Muller said.
The Quakertown senior has been playing softball since she was 8 years old but never played for a select or travel team until eighth grade.
“Starting so late was a challenge, and I was one of the worst girls on the team, but I worked really hard to improve and catch up to the girls around me,” Muller said. “By the end of my freshman year, I knew I wanted to play college softball and started emailing coaches and going to camps for lots of different schools.”
Zach Borzio will continue his wrestling career at Williams College. In terms of a major, the Quakertown senior is undeclared by looking to double major in economics and statistics.
“I chose Williams because it is one of the best educations in the world,” Borzio said. “It has an amazing team and coach, and it’s a perfect fit for me.
“I have been wrestling since kindergarten, and I started seriously thinking about competing in college during middle school. The recruiting process started after my sophomore year of high school.”
Alex Bevan-Xenelis will continue her field hockey career at Wingate University where she will major in sports communication.
“I loved the coach and am excited to be part of the team,” Bevan-Xenelis said of Wingate. “I also loved the campus and am so excited to move south and play field hockey.
“I’ve been playing hockey since I was 6 and started playing club very young. I have always wanted to play in college and started looking at schools last year. I emailed the coach and was visiting another school in the south, so my parents and I decided to stop at Wingate as part of our trip. I met the coach and knew right away I wanted to go there.”
Callen Abel chose Clarkson University where she will continue her soccer career and major in biomedical engineering or software engineering.
“The university has a perfect student body size, and it offers an amazing engineering program,” Abel said. “The location also is very beautiful. The soccer coach is very nice and is very driven to building the women’s soccer program.”
Abel first started thinking about playing collegiate soccer midway through her sophomore year.
“It was very difficult to go through the recruitment process because of COVID,” Abel said. “In the beginning of my junior year, I had established relationships with college coaches over email, and over the summer I went to many recruiting camps and college visits to find the perfect fit for me.”
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