Second Round of Senior Athletes Signs Letters of Intent

Raider graduates will compete in diverse collegiate environments

Anna Krouse, Raider Zone Editor|March 5, 2019

The seven athletes sit in front of a crowd of friends, coaches and family as they sign their letters of intent.

Senior athletes Nasir Rashid, Will Schinabeck, Josh Ailiff, Rasheen Ali, Elizabeth Brown, Molly Stewart and Makari Stanberry signed letters of intent Feb. 6 to commit to playing college sports.

Next fall, Rashid will play NCAA Division I football at the U.S. Air Force Academy, north of Colorado Springs, CO.

“It kinda chose me — it was just one of the offers I had to play football at the collegiate level,” Rashid said. “I really just wanted to go to the next level and play on a big stage.”

“It just seemed like the right fit,” Rashid said.

Schinabeck will play lacrosse at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. The Bates lacrosse team competes in the NCAA Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference.

“I wanted to go to a liberal arts school because I don’t really know what I want to do for a profession. I was looking at a bunch of colleges in the NESCAC, and Bates seemed like the right fit,” Schinabeck said.

To athletes who want to play lacrosse in college, Schinabeck said, “Just grind, and it will always work out.”

Ailiff will attend Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York next fall to play football. He will be a slot receiver and will also return punts.

“I chose Erie because they made me think it could be a new home and take care of business I didn’t take care of in high school,” he said.

Ailiff said he is looking forward to improving his game while he attends ECC.

Brown will attend Swarthmore College in southeast Pennsylvania this fall as a member of the Division III women’s soccer team. After playing soccer for as long as she can remember, Brown is ecstatic to attend Swarthmore.

“I’ve hung out with the team a couple of times, and they are really close. So I know it’s gonna be a great support system going into my first year of college and a great way to make friends,” Brown said.

Stewart is attending Denison University in Granville, OH, where she will also play Division III soccer.

When Stewart first visited Denison, she said that she “ended up loving it. I stepped on the campus and it was so pretty. On top of that, the coaches were awesome and the players were super nice.”

Stewart said she believed that her high school soccer experience encouraged her to play soccer in college and prepared her for the future level of competition.

Ali will play football at Division I Marshall University in Huntington, WV. He said the effort he made this year to make up for previous years paid off. “I wish I would’ve worked harder at football, been in the weight room more, and perfected the craft,” he said.

Ali said he loves Marshall University and can’t wait to begin the football season in the fall. “I would say, as long as you give 100 percent, there is gonna be a school out there that wants you,” Ali said.

Stanberry will attend Urbana University in Ohio to play Division II football. According to Stanberry, “I chose Urbana because they were genuine and treated me like family from the beginning of my recruiting process.”

Stanberry also said he has been playing football his entire life, and he didn’t want to stop playing after high school.

“I’m looking forward to meeting all my new teammates, practicing — things of that nature — and the whole college experience,” Stanberry said.