EGUSD Honors 13 In Nat'l LOI Ceremony

The Elk Grove Unified School District honored 13 of its athletes Wednesday in its annual spring National Letter-of-Intent signing ceremony at the Robert Trigg Building.

Two athletes will attend the U.S. Naval Academy: Shot putter and discus thrower Isabella Marini of Elk Grove High School and Jaaron Stallworth, a basketball player from Cosumnes Oaks High School. This is quite an honor because the freshman class of midshipmen at Annapolis numbers only around 1200.

Isabella Marini, with mother Lorissa

Elk Grove football player Spencer Sheff inked a letter to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Two other football players, Monterey Trail's Trey Nahhas and Elk Grove's Manny Scott-Anderson, had previously inked NCAA letters-of-intent in February, but joined the others in this ceremony. Nahhas will attend Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo while Scott-Anderson will go to Sacramento State.

Five tracksters signed Wednesday led by Cameron Stone of Sheldon, one of the state's top runners in the 400 meters. Emelda Malm-Annan, an elite shot putter and discus thrower at Monterey Trail, signed a commitment to the University of Wyoming.

Franklin's long jumper, Jorden O'Neil, inked a letter with UC-Riverside while Pleasant Grove's Grace Hepworth will run track next year at Chico State.

The lone baseball player in the signing ceremony was Cosumnes Oaks' Drew Gwerder who will attend Holy Names University.

Golfers Brittany O'Bryant and Kiki Trujillo-Nava, both from Pleasant Grove, signed their letters Wednesday. O'Bryant will attend Chico State while Trujillo-Nava will go to Texas Southern.

One soccer player inked a letter-of-intent. He was Michael Hirsch of Pleasant Grove who will play next year at Chico State.

EGUSD athletes and their parents at Wednesday's LOI ceremony

And, our congratulations to Laguna Creek's Michael Oakland who was one of only 48 Sac-Joaquin Section athletes to earn an A. Dale Lackey/CSEA Scholarship.

Matthew competed for the cross country and track and field teams for four years each. He was the team MVP in cross country twice and in track and field three times. He’s received academic excellence awards for each sport all four years. 

He won the academic achievement award, Susan B. Anthony Award and was a PSAT African-American commended student. He’s a volunteer at Meadows Assisted Living and he’s gone on mission trips with his church. 

Matthew has a 4.67 GPA, which is No. 3 in his class of 424. He will attend the University of Chicago and will major in pre-law with the future goal of becoming a lawyer.

Delta League Baseball on Wednesday:

Elk Grove 10, Monterey Trail 0
Jesuit 3, Franklin 1 (first Delta loss for the Wildcats, who are now tied atop the league with the Marauders and Herd at 4-1)
Grant 6, Davis 4 
Sheldon 6, Pleasant Grove 5 (Matt Manning had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs)