It was an eventful week for Daviess County High School athletics, as Rebekah Moran, Makenzie Ross, and Ryder Williams all signed letters to compete at the collegiate level. Moran and Williams will both be running track at Centre College and Lindsey Wilson University, while Ross will be competing in the triathlon at Liberty University.
Having been homeschooled for most of her life, Ross joined Daviess County this year as a member of the girls’ cross country team, helping them win a 3A Region title and finish ninth at the State Tournament meet.
Ross spoke with multiple schools throughout her recruitment process, including North Central, University of Indianapolis, and Wingate University, but acknowledged that Liberty felt like home.
“It was a place where Christ felt alive, and that was one of the most important things to me” Ross said. “But once I met up with the team, Coach Heather took me in. I instantly connected with the girls, and it felt like family from the first step.”
Ross was also won over by Liberty’s academics, and plans to study exercise science.
“Liberty has an amazing program there, but especially for the fitness professional side, where you get to work with athletes. They work really hard on that,” Ross said. “But there were also a couple of other teammates of mine that were going to be studying the same program, and one of my coaches on the team actually works in that program in study.”
Longtime track teammates, Moran acknowledged how surreal it was for her and Williams to come this far in their athletic careers.
“It was actually great because you get to look back on those times you ran together as freshmen, and you both didn’t think you were going to run in college,” Moran said. “And then you see that you’re both actually signing on the same day to go to college, and it’s like, wow, we’ve both come so far. It’s awesome to see the character development and the opportunities ahead of each other.”
Wanting to stay in-state, Moran spoke with multiple schools, including Bellarmine University, but appreciated the mix of academics and athletics that Centre offered.
“I really wanted to prioritize my academics and my athletics, and Centre was ranked in the top three in the state for the field I wanted to enter,” Moran said. “So, I decided that Centre had both the athletic program and the academic program that I wanted to pursue.”
At Centre, Moran will be competing in the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, and plans to study English education.
Skilled in the field events, Williams is fresh off second-place finishes in the long jump and triple jump at the KHSAA Class 3A Region 1 meet. It wasn’t until he broke the school record in the long jump at the Owensboro Invitational that the senior decided to look at competing collegiately.
After only hearing from one school beforehand, he spoke with around 50 coaches over the past two months – including Tiffin University and the University of the Cumberlands, but acknowledged that Lindsey Wilson was the most inviting.
“Whenever I went on a visit there, the coaches were the most welcoming, and everything they had to say was truly positive about their program,” Williams said. “The academics they offer are obviously outstanding. I just thought it would be the perfect fit for me over the next four years.”
In the classroom, he plans to studying accounting under business administration.
