Two Salisbury football players will move into the college ranks this fall as they continue their academic and athletic careers in college.

Jason St. Leger will attend McDaniel College and teammate Derek Trinidad will play at Moravian University. The two were among eight student-athletes who were recognized recently during a college signing ceremony at the high school last week.

It actually wasn’t that long ago that St. Leger settled on his major, which will be kinesiology. When he was researching potential majors, he stumbled upon kinesiology – the study of human movement – and became interested. The major will allow the high school running back to stay in touch with elements of the sports world, which made it even more attractive to him as a career.

McDaniel, in Westminster, Md., has a strong kinesiology department and offers St. Leger the opportunity to continue playing football at the college level.

While it was not that long ago that St. Leger chose a major, it was not that long ago that he experienced the highlight of his high school career.

For the senior running back, beating Catasauqua had been a long time coming, but it finally happened this past season and it was St. Leger who played an oversized role in the victory with three rushing touchdowns, a receiving touchdown, and a passing touchdown that accounted for 201 yards of offense on the day for him in the Falcons 42-35 win.

“That was my favorite game by far,” said St. Leger. “I don’t think I ever beat them in my life since I started playing in second grade. When we won that game, it was really exciting, and I was just energized to get that win.”

College will be a new experience, which is another thing St. Leger is excited about. He sounds like a player who is ready to take it all in.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said St. Leger. “I’m looking forward to becoming a better athlete and a better student. I want to share some of the things I know and learn more from everybody and everything around me. Being off to college is going to be a fun time.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of the player and the person that Jason has become,” said coach Kevin DiZenzo. “From the moment I met him, I could tell that he had a natural drive and talent. He combined his athletic ability with a strong work ethic and showed a lot of leadership.”

Trinidad added to his workload at Salisbury playing both football and baseball. Going to Moravian was an option that came in late in the process of choosing a school and the fact that it is a little closer than the other schools he was considering helped to tip the scales.

“A lot of the schools I was looking at were about an hour away and when I visited Moravian, I just knew that I wanted to be there,” said Trinidad, who will major in nursing. As it turned out, it was a hospital stay that pushed Trinidad’s interests toward a career in health care.

“When I was in the hospital, they took good care of me and I want to be able to do that same kind of thing, take care of people and help them out,” said Trinidad. “I think playing sports and working to keep my grades up taught me to stay determined and know that there’s a goal in mind and that goal will always be there to work towards.”

In just two seasons as an outside linebacker, Trinidad collected 38 solo tackles and assisted with 74 others, in addition to getting three sacks. Offensively, Trinidad rushed for 644 yards in his high school career. On the baseball field, Trinidad hit .345 in his senior season.

“When I first met Derek, it became obvious that he was a passionate competitor and a fierce teammate,” said DiZenzo. “What really made him stand out was his commitment to improvement and his willingness to put in the work. He refused to settle for anything less than the best.”