A total of 11 Emmaus High School boys student-athletes officially announced their college plans with letters of intent last week at Emmaus High School. Noah Bacon (soccer), Eric Cichocki (baseball), Tyler Corpora (lacrosse), Kacper Grycel (soccer), David Kachelries (basketball), Braedon LaBar (lacrosse), Carson Landis (football), Ian McCardle (football), Todd Moxey (baseball), Drew Schwindenhammer (football) and Dylan Sosnow (soccer) all made their college commitments official.

The athletes’ coaches and athletic director Dennis Ramella spoke glowingly about the individual players and the group as a whole at a ceremony held in the high school auditorium.

“This is my favorite day,” said Ramella with a big smile. “I love to see these kids who have worked so hard and contributed to the school not only in athletics, but academically and with their involvement in activities. We have so many great stories here and it’s nice for them to get this recognition.”

Calling Kachelries the best basketball player in the school’s history, coach Steve Yoder spoke about the accomplishments of his senior player, who needs just 13 points to become the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Cichocki, who is a multi-sport student athlete, will be attending Lehigh University, where he’ll major in integrated business and engineering. He has the distinction of holding the highest GPA among the boys athletes with a 4.47 GPA.

Bacon will be attending Le Moyne College in Syracuse, where he’ll major in biology. For Bacon, the school became a good fit when he found out about their programs and how he could continue both his education and playing career at the school, which is consistently in the NCAA postseason for soccer.

“Le Moyne was definitely one of the strongest academic schools to talk to me, and along with their really great soccer program, it was a really easy choice when it came down to it,” said Bacon.

The Emmaus football program, which reached the District 11 semifinals, witnessed a resurgence this past season under first-year coach Harold Fairclough. Three of its players, Landis, McCardle and Schwindenhammer, all signed letters of intent, with Landis heading to Penn State, McCardle to Kutztown and Schwindenhammer to Millersville University.

“It was amazing, really. We couldn’t have wished for a better season,” said Schwindenhammer. “I was looking for a good school for a secondary education program and I think the football program there is up and coming, so that will be fun. Plus, it’s far away so that I’m not at home all the time, but I can come home when I need to, so it’s the best of both worlds.”

Emmaus soccer coach John Cari hates to see goalie Sosnow go off to college, especially after anticipating his arrival in the program for a few years.

“I had people telling me about Dylan from very early on,” said Cari. “When he was in the youth programs, there were people saying ‘just wait until you get this kid.’ I truly don’t know how we replace him and his approach to the game and what he’s accomplished as a student athlete.”

In all, 20 student athletes received division one or division two scholarships this year, in what was the largest group from Emmaus in memory. The student athletes received over $2-million in scholarships, with male athletes attending Le Moyne, Lehigh, the University of Hartford, Bloomsburg, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Sienna College, Penn State, Kutztown, Longwood University and Millersville. The Millersville Marauders locked up two Emmaus student athletes in Schwindenhammer and Sosnow.