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A big day for Devine High School Athletics took place on Wednesday Feb. 3 in the Devine Student Activity Center where three student athletes signed to a college to further their academic and athletic careers. Senior Warhorse football players John Schnautz and Christian Gerlach signed to the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas to further their football career, while senior Arabian volleyball player Madison Pike signed to Coastal Bend junior college in Beeville, Texas.

As a four year starter on varsity, Schnautz ended his high school career with 97 pancakes and only 1 career sack allowed. Schnautz was also selected to play on the Gold team at the San Antonio Sports All-Star Game that took place on Jan. 30. Schnautz has done exceptionally well in high school and plans to further his accomplishments at the next level.

“The community and coaching staff at UMHB helped me with my decision to attend, and got me excited to further my athletic and academic career,” Schnautz said. “Coach Johnson is the main reason I took the offer. Because he took his time to travel from Belton to speak with me, I felt secure with him as a person as well as a coach, which reflected on the school and how much they care for their student athletes.”

Gerlach ended his senior football season with a total of 21 sacks, 55 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, 5 caused fumbles, and 3 fumble recoveries. Gerlach plans to make a statement at UMHB continuing to better his stats.

“Playing at the next level is going to be an experience I have dreamed of since middle school,” Gerlach said. “Visiting the school and getting to talk with Coach Johnson and Coach Wing helped me with my final decision as well as hearing that  my teammate John committed to the same school made me even more excited about my decision.”

Coach Paul Gomez spoke at the two Warhorse athletes sign- ing, speaking about all of the accomplishments the two men have achieved over their four years in Devine.

“I am super proud of these two athletes and I know they have an opportunity to do great at the next level. It makes me proud as their coach because I can see their hard work paying off. This is why I love doing what I do because I am one hundred percent in it for the athletes andI have been with these guys since their freshman year,” Coach Gomez said. “After coaching their freshman year I knew they had the potential to play at the next level, but it did take a lot of sweat, blood and tears and these two guys were not afraid to work hard.”

Later that day, Madison Pike was proud to announce that she would be signing to Coastal Bend College. Being a three year varsity letter, Pike has always been determined to play volleyball at the next level and is super excited to watch her dreams fall into place.

“I am beyond blessed to be furthering my athletic career in college and making my family proud,” Pike said. “I continued to have a positive mindset during the recruiting process but I did have a few mishaps along the way. There were a lot of things that kept me positive throughout the recruiting process but the main ones are my coaches and family, I definitely couldn’t have done it without them.

Coming from a small town, it is hard for athletes to get the exposure needed to go play at the next level, the three seniors did not let this stop them from contacting colleges and getting their names out there. These three have worked their hardest over the past four years here in hopes to play at the next level and they are living proof that hard work pays off.