St. Andrew’s Scots hold signing day celebration for 15 athletes

Emily Trieschmann could only watch as a spectator in the fall as her St. Andrew’s School teammates finished second in the FHSAA Class 1A state swimming competition at the Sailfish Splashpark Aquatic Athletics Center in Stuart.

The talented 17-year-old senior injured her right shoulder doing push-ups during beach practice. It led to her eventually missing six months of swimming and put her college career in jeopardy but she was able to recover and was one of 15 St. Andrew’s School student-athletes who was recently celebrated with a signing day ceremony in the school’s gymnasium.

“Signing day was a very exciting day that I was looking forward to,” said Trieschmann, a Lantana resident who signed with Florida State University. “I had a lot of obstacles in my path leading up to signing day.”

Trieschmann said her ligaments were stretched so loose that her shoulder kept falling out of place. After talking with her coaches, and the college coach she was committed to at the time, she decided to “kick her way through states.”

“For about a month I kicked throughout every practice and raced at the meets,” she said. “Overall, I was not pleased with my performance at the meets, and the pain was getting worse. After weeks of being in so much pain, I was losing my passion for swimming, I made the hard decision to not swim at States and get the surgery on Oct. 21, 2020.

“During surgery, they also found two tears and tightened my ligaments,” she said. “Overall, the surgery went better than expected and I was on my way to recovering.”

About a week after surgery, she had a Zoom call with the college coaches and found out that she had to de-commit.

“This was about two weeks before fall signing day, and I was devastated,” Trieschmann said. “I did not know how I was going to find another school who would recruit me so late into the year, and while being in a sling. But FSU was always there for me. I had a Zoom call with the coaches and they were so understanding of my situation and they wanted to make sure they were there to support me.

“Along with the coaches,” she said, “I also had a Zoom call with some of the freshmen girls, along with former St. Andrew’s teammate Lauren Hew, who also goes to FSU. After the call with the freshmen girls, I knew I wanted to be a part of their swimming family… I am glad that I had this experience, even though it was emotionally, mentally and physically draining, I ended up going to FSU where I know they will support me in all of the challenges that will come my way.”

After being sidelined until April where she was limited to kicking (not using her arms and swimming on her side), she is back in the pool. Scots teammate Santiago Espinoza is headed to Nova Southeastern University for men’s swimming.

Others who are headed to college are basketball players Sophia Federico (Rhodes College); Stephanie Theodossakos (University of Tampa); Kayla DeHerrera (Oglethorpe University); Thompson Hyland (Manhattan College); Bobby Stewart (Tufts University); and Devin Hines (Lafayette University).

Hines, 17, of West Palm Beach, said schools such as Cornell University, Rice University and Niagara University were recruiting him until Lafayette coach Jarren Dyson jumped in and started talking with him later in the process.

“I felt a great connection with him and the rest of the coaches and they continued to recruit me throughout my junior and senior year,” Hines said. “And after having great conversations with the coaching staff, I committed.

“My parents and I were so excited we could not wait till the day I signed with them,” Hines said. “To this very day, it has been the best decision that I have made. I’m really excited about the opportunity to play basketball at a D1 school and at the same time get a great education at Lafayette.”

Golfers Char Russekoff (Cornell University) and Justin Ross (University of North Florida) and soccer player Joseph England (Radford University) will play at the next level.

Jacob Lowen, who recently helped the boys’ tennis team win a state title, is headed to the University of Chicago, while teammates Isaac Smith (Palm Beach Atlantic University) and Ellis Short (Princeton University) will also play in college.

Cross country and track standout Ian Noble is headed to the University of Virginia. The Lighthouse Point resident celebrated his birthday with signing day.

“The recruiting process this year was super chaotic for me,” Noble said. “Missing all of the last track season due to COVID-19, I was stuck. With my coaches explaining to coaches how I was about to drop some really fast times, it was hard to get many top D1 schools to believe us.

“Ultimately, after a successful start to my outdoor track season, I narrowed my choices down to Georgetown and the University of Virginia,” he said. “I initially had my heart set on Georgetown for a long time because of the rigorous academic nature of school along with being an up-and-coming team that had an excellent team culture. However, after getting a phone call from one of the most polarizing figures in track and field and the new coach of Virginia’s track program Vin Lananna, I had an itch that this is where I was meant to be.”

Noble called being coached by someone with the knowledge Lananna has “is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

“With the perfect balance between academics and athletics infused with a team of young guys ready to work hard, I was ecstatic to end up at UVA,” Noble said. “I also have to acknowledge my teammate Matt Mulé and coach Nic Jacobsen for especially getting me where I am now. With Matt taking a big risk transferring in his senior year, it was truly special to have one of your best friends push you into practice every single day.