For many athletes, their goal is to be able to play a sport as long as possible and go to college for it. Six percent of high school athletes are able to make this dream come true, according to NCAA.org. It is an incredible accomplishment to carry over playing competitively into college.

This year, 20 student-athletes in the senior grade have committed to a college and decided to continue their athletic careers. The field hockey team has committed seven out of those 20, accumulating the most commitments at West Essex this year. Four of those are heading to a Division I school. Julia Russo committed to UPenn on the Division I level. UPenn is known for being academically challenging and has a competitive field hockey team.

All 20 athletes have put in a tremendous amount of training and dedication so deciding to continue their athletic careers was an easy one.

There are three sets of twins who are committed to play sports at the same college. Ashley and Sarah Iannuzzi will be playing Division I field hockey at the University of Delaware. Lauren and Christina Cammarata will also be playing field hockey at The College of New Jersey. Max and Ben Ruvo are playing Division III baseball together at Washington College.

Baseball player Anthony Vassallo will be continuing his career with his high school teammates at Washington College.

“It’s awesome that I’ll be able to play with the Ruvos for the next four years,” Vassallo said. “I’m great friends with them and hopefully we’ll be able to carry our success into college.”

Vin Scaglia has enjoyed being recruited for football and he will be playing football next year at Moravian College.

“It was an honor for me to be recognized from colleges to play football next year,” Scaglia said. “Meeting the coaches and visiting the school was an exciting process for me.”

This year, all of the captains from the football team decided to continue their careers. Ant Sangillo will be playing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Eamon Morrissey will play at Gettysburg College and Gerard Onorata will be playing at The College of New Jersey.