The waves of distinctive college color schemes flooded through the gymnasium doors at Huntington Beach High on Wednesday morning, each cluster carrying personalized signs, balloons, or flowers for the student-athlete they had flocked in to watch sign possibly the most important document of their young lives.
In holding one large ceremony on what’s possibly the most heralded day on the athletic high school calendar, Huntington Beach High saw a school-record 34 seniors from 12 different sports participate in the National Signing Day festivities, making it the largest event in the county Wednesday.
While football receives much of the the attention nationally, it was one of the few sports that was not represented at Huntington Beach’s event. The school’s softball team was most represented with six athletes. The girls water polo and girls soccer squads both had five players. The baseball and boys water polo team featured four athletes each.
In addition to the CIF-sanctioned sports, the Oilers also honored student who earned scholarships in rowing, hockey, and acrobatics/tumbling.
“It’s important to recognize those non-CIF sports because those kids are working just as hard and putting in just as much time as the kids in the extracurricular activities we offer on campus,” Huntington Beach principal Daniel Morris said. “We work with these kids for 13 years, and this is the culmination of all that hard work. it just shows the partnership all the way up through the ranks beginning with their parents, our community, feeder schools.
“Our students work really hard to get here, but there’s a lot of people behind the scenes to get them here as well.”
Five Oiler student-athletes will be attending UCLA in the fall, the top destination amongst the Huntington Beach signees on Wednesday. Of those future Bruins is star baseball player Hagan Danner, who had committed to UCLA before his freshman year.
“Been waiting a long time for this,” said Danner, who is also expected to be drafted in the MLB Draft in mid-June, “I’ve just got to see how it goes from here. Let the cards turn on the table and go from there. But I’m super (excited) about the season.”
Sitting next to Danner on Wednesday morning was teammate and longtime friend, Nick Pratto, who was donning a rival cardinal-and-gold polo from USC, where he is committed.
“I was committed before my freshman year, so it’s something I’ve kind of waited for for four years now,” Pratto explained. “It’s relieving and was a little surreal.”
Along with the parents and family members in attendance, many of Huntington Beach’s coaches lined up along the baseline and watched as the players they helped groom over the past four years put an exclamation mark on stellar high school careers.
“This is the pinnacle,” Oilers girls basketball coach Russ McClurg said. “As a coach, it’s one of the greatest days. … We coach because of the kids. This is why we do this. And to see one of our own get a full scholarship, make their life easier, it’s always one of the proudest days of my coaching career.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
