While the rest of the senior class is busy determining what their next steps might be, three female athletes already know where they are headed for the next four years. Senior Ava Longi was the first athlete in the class of 2020 to commit to college for athletics. Longi committed to swim for the University of Texas at Austin in June after swimming for four years for the LBJ varsity team and years of competitive swimming.

Longi is one of three seniors who have committed to play sports in college, all three of them girls. Senior Elizabeth Myers committed to swim at Rice University after swimming club competitively and on the varsity swimming team. In the end, she chose between Rice, Penn State, University of Richmond and Boston University.

“I received offers from a few other schools,” Myers said. “I had been talking to more at the beginning, and I narrowed it down as I went.”

Senior Paris Nix committed to play volleyball at Washington University in Saint Louis after four years of LBJ volleyball and many years of club volleyball and training on the side. Nix received offers from Johns Hopkins and MIT before choosing Washington University.

“I was mostly looking at Ivy’s in terms of D1 and high academic schools and high volleyball D3s,” Nix said. “I picked [Washington University in Saint Louis] because it was the best balance of academic life, volleyball life, and social life. It also has a really good pre-med program, which I want to go into.”

According to Nix, Myers and Longi, they were not ready to stop playing their sports in high school and looked to college to continue their careers. The three athletes said that playing sports in college was inevitable. After playing sports competitively for years, Longi said swimming in college was the next step.

“I just can’t imagine stopping swimming at this point,” Longi said. “I have been swimming for 15 years, and competitively for 10, and I’ve worked too hard to just stop now. Also, I just love racing, and I wanted to have an automatic family when I got to college.”

One unique aspect about the college commits this year is that the first three commits are senior girls. Nix said she is proud to be a part of such an impressive group.

“I think that’s really cool, also the girls that have commited are super hard working, super dedicated and people I assumed would go to college for their sport,” Nix said. “I think that’s super awesome. Also all three insanely good schools. I am super proud of them and it’s cool to be in the same group as them.”

Nix said committing to play sports in college has been a long term goal for her. She has been working towards playing volleyball in college for the past six years.

“It’s been something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I’ve realized it’s a thing you could do in middle school,” Nix said. “It’s something that I love to do, a way to make friends and it’s something that I’m passionate about and something I have wanted to continue doing in college for a long time.”

All three athletes said that preparing to compete at the college level has been a long process. According to Nix, it has involved playing school and club athletics and personal training.

“I play both school and club volleyball, so basically year-round I am playing volleyball multiple times a week,” Nix said. “Beyond school and club volleyball, I do conditioning, I do private lessons with my personal strength coach for two to three years and he has helped me insanely, especially because I got injured freshman year.”

All three commits felt that the commitment process was rigorous and long. Myers said for her, it started with phone calls and emails with the schools she was interested in.

“I first talked to the coach a year ago, and I really liked what he had to say about the team, and that was when I first visited campus,” Myers said. “He took the time out of his day to talk to me and my family, which I thought was very cool. Recruiting started around December, and I had a few phone calls, and I really like what he had to say additionally. I met the team at a junior day in the spring. The team was awesome; they were like a family.”

In addition to a seamless transition, Nix said that her goal is to maintain a balance between school, volleyball and a social life. She also looks forward to making new friends on her team.

“I’m hoping for a smooth transition,” Nix said. “I think all the support from the girls, the coach, the campus in general will make it okay. I want to be able to hangout with them, while working towards a D3 championship, but I also want to be focused on my studies and go pre-med.”

Longi said she is excited to continue her academic and athletic career in college. She looks forward to what the future holds for her.

“I am looking forward to joining the team and finally getting to be on campus with them, and training with them, and swimming for the University of Texas at Austin.” Longi said. “I feel like I am already part of the family. I love Austin, and I am super excited.”