With the 2024-2025 school year and high school sports season completed, Salisbury High School recently congratulated its student-athletes who will be continuing their athletic careers in college and signed a letters of intent to attend a particular school.

Track and Field athlete Will Kocher and wrestler Nathan Tone were among the athletes who were celebrated at the signing ceremony last month.

Kocher will attend DeSales University in the fall where he will study political science and criminal justice.

Salisbury jumping coach Tony Hamane was Kocher’s coach for three seasons and was impressed not only with Kocher’s athletic ability, but also with his comedic personality that kept the team loose.

“Will brings talent but also has the kind of energy and personality to keep the team loose,” said Hamane. “He has a way of motivating his teammates through laughter. I’ve never had an athlete do so well in practice and in meets and then joke about it.”

The decision to attend DeSales was based on a number of things. First, the courses fit well with Kocher’s choice of major and the track program gives him a good opportunity to continue competing.

“I really liked the stuff that they have for my major,” noted Kocher. “They have a crime house where they set up a crime and have the students study it and come up with ideas. I think it’s going to be a good fit for me.”

Kocher signed up for track because he loves competition.

“I tried a ton of different sports and this one kind of stuck because I quickly figured out that I am not good with hand-eye coordination, so any sport with a ball, I’m just not good at,” said Kocher with a laugh. “I found that I was good at track and I enjoyed it, so here I am.”

The one sport with a ball that Kocher does enjoy is golf. He also competed in rifle while at Salisbury.

In districts this season, Kocher finished sixth in the 2A triple jump competition with a distance of 41’ 10” and took ninth in the long jump with a distance of 19’3”.

Wrestler Nathaniel Tone will continue as a student-athlete at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in New York. Tone applied to West Point, but was rejected so he quickly turned to another service academy and was accepted at the Merchant Marine Academy.

“I think it may work out to be better for me,” he said, “because with the Merchant Marine Academy, you don’t have to go into the military after. You can, but it’s not required. My dad is still active duty in the Army, so I wanted to follow that.”

Wrestling coach Bob Fiedler has been impressed with the drive that he has seen from Tone since he started in the program as a freshman. Noting that the Lehigh Valley is one of the toughest areas in the country for high school wrestling, Fiedler noted that it is especially tough for freshmen wrestlers.

“Nathaniel won 13 matches as a freshman, but rather than give in to the adversity, he doubled down and became one of the hardest workers in the room,” said Fiedler.

Tone believes that it wasn’t just the hard work that he put in that allowed him to succeed, but the fact that he had a strong belief in himself from the outset and used that to motivate himself.

“It feels really good to have put in all of that hard work. I always believed that it was going to happen since I started, so I sort of expected it,” said Tone. “I’m going to remember all of the hours that I put in working in the wrestling room and all of the coaches and my friends that helped me.”