Signing Day: Four state champs at Avon to play football at college

AVON — Many members of Avon's 2024 and 2025 state championship football teams are preparing to trade in their helmets and pads for a cap and gown and scatter to colleges and universities across the land. On Wednesday, four of those players shared one more moment together when they gathered in the school's Performing Arts Center to sign their written athletic financial aid agreements to the schools where they will start the next chapters of their athletic and academic careers. Max Hauck and Grant Barr, who were both All-Ohio selections at Avon, are continuing their football careers at the Division I level at Miami University and the University at Albany. Trevor Maly signed to Division III's Alfred State, located in New York, and Jensen Petro signed to Capital University where he will play football and baseball. Also signing Wednesday were Julianna Stein, who will run track and cross country at John Carroll University, and Sophia Lunato, who will continue her lacrosse career at Otterbein University. "Being up there with my friends and having my friends and family in the audience makes me appreciate everything I did for myself and everything my coaches, my parents and my teammates did for me," said Barr, a starting wide receiver on both of Avon's state title teams. "I always knew this would happen, but I am really glad it's someplace I wanted to go to." Hauck, who was a leader on the offensive line for Avon, orally committed to Miami a few weeks ago but made it official Wednesday. "It feels great to be able to sign with some of my closest friends since kindergarten ... now we're going off to college," Hauck said. "To know that's we're all going on to play the sport that we love is amazing. Freshman year we came to all of the seniors' signing days and it was always a thought in our minds that one day we'd be up there." Avon coach Mike Elder has been a part of dozens of these signing ceremonies during his time at Avon but this year's signing hit differently for the veteran coach as these athlete are in the same class as his son Blake, the quarterback on this year's Avon team. So Elder had the opportunity to coach many of these kids in flag football and baseball alongside his son. "It really is special," Elder said. "I've watched these kids since they were little compete and do things athletically. I've coached almost every one of these kids in sports other than football. "It's been very rewarding. I get emotional sometimes and I'm trying not to be that person. You know the trials and tribulations and all of the hard work they put it and you get to know the families. This is just the beginning of the journey for all of them, but I know they're well prepared." Petro, a kicker for football and a baseball pitcher, might have the most difficult road of all in college as he attempts to play both sports. "It's a blessing to be here for both sports," Petro said. "I want to thank everyone at Capital for allowing me to do this. "Being a pitcher and a kicker, it's not as hard as it would be for other positions but it's definitely going to be challenging. I'm going to have to split up my workload. It's going to be hard with both practice and all of my academic work, but I'm up for the challenge." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.