Local athletes ink National Letters of Intent

Roxbury senior Paige Monaghan took a rather non-traditional route when it came to committing to college.

Monaghan, a forward/midfielder on the Gaels' girls soccer team, had been committed to Purdue since her sophomore season, but coaching changes at the school prompted her to change her mind, and she was still looking at schools as late as December. She made the decision between Alabama and Butler, and she will sign her National Letter of Intent to attend Butler on Friday.

"Initially the whole problem with Purdue, it was 12 hours of pure, 'How is this happening? I can't believe this is happening,'" Monaghan said. "But I believe in good karma, I've been working so hard, I've done good in school so there has to be something good to come from this, I started contacting coaches, coaches were contacting me and I'm blessed to go to Butler."

Monaghan, who holds the single-season and career goals records for Roxbury, is excited that she gets to continue playing soccer in college and can't wait to see what Butler, located outside of Indianapolis, has to offer.

"The coaches at Alabama are great, the program is great but the Butler coaches were so motivational, so powerful and such strong people, and besides soccer as people they were inspirational," Monaghan said. "The girls were great people, which is what we have at Roxbury, so to have that in college is amazing, the campus and education is great, I'm going to be set for the rest of my life."

Several other girls soccer players signed their letters of intent on Wednesday, including Morristown-Beard's Gianna Bustamante (Colgate), West Morris' Brooke Carty (East Carolina), Kinnelon's Casey Gray (Bucknell), Villa Walsh's Megan Lawlor, Pope John's Alexandra McGill (James Madison) and Hanover Park's Gianna Parlavecchio (IUP).

Morristown-Beard senior forward Kristy Cotter, who led the Crimson with 27 goals in the fall, will be attending Columbia, but since it's an Ivy League school which does not offer athletic scholarships, she didn't sign a letter. Despite that fact, she's still happy that her search is over and she can now just enjoy the rest of her senior year.

"It's really exciting especially because the whole process has been building since my freshman year, I saw so many types of schools and I wasn't sure if I wanted a big school, small school, soccer school, but now it's finally done and I'm really happy with where I'm going," Cotter said. "Mostly I wanted to go to school to play soccer and academically challenge myself, so for me it was the perfect balance. The soccer program is really building, they have new coaches so they're putting their name on the map and academically it's incomparable, there aren't many schools that can compete."

Gray, a senior midfielder who had 21 goals and 22 assists as the Colts won the Group I title, signed her letter to attend Bucknell.

"It's exciting, it means I have to get ready for solid academics and athletics and today made it more official and it just means it's getting closer," she said. "It's really exciting, I'm really happy that I get this opportunity and hopefully I can succeed there."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: 973-428-6674; lknego@gannett.com