With decision day quickly approaching seniors have to make their final decision on where they will be attending school next year, and many seniors at DGS plan on playing sports in college at the next level. With many colleges to choose from, how do student-athletes narrow their search down to one college and commit to attending that school?

Senior Max Foster who was apart of the DGS football team and plans on attending the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He plans on continuing his football career there.

“So the process took me a while [because] I had to start with [looking at] schools I would be able to play football at, and [get an] education as well because that’s more important than the sport,” Foster said.

“It was both [fun and stressful]. Like traveling to new places and getting noticed was fun, but it was mostly stressful especially since at first, I started filling out questionnaires for different schools,” Foster said.

Senior Randi Mckay will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to play softball.

McKay is apart of the DGS softball team and has been on the varsity team since her freshman year. She also plays club softball with the Chicago Cheetahs and has been playing with them for four years.

Mckay will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to play division one softball.

“The process I took to commit to UWGB was going to multiple college camps, playing in college exposure tournaments and reaching out to the coaches and schools I was interested in,” Mckay  said.

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The process I took to commit to UWGB was going to multiple college camps, playing in college exposure tournaments and reaching out to the coaches and schools I was interested in.

— Randi Mckay

Division one is a very high competitive division filled with the best players from all over the world. College coaches say when you play a sport at this level it becomes your number one priority and it could get really stressful.

“I am super excited but a little nervous. The nerves come in when I start thinking about playing at the D1 level,” Mckay said.

Family and coaches play huge roles in making these decisions and getting you to where you can have opportunities like this.

“They made sure I was following through with coaches and paying for camps and travel ball which gave me the opportunity to be seen by coaches,” Mckay said.

Senior varsity lacrosse player Audie Brackett will be attending Florida Atlantic University where he plans on playing lacrosse. Brackett has been playing lacrosse since his freshman year of high school for Downers Grove South

When it came to making the decision for Brackett, he didn’t want to continue playing really competitive lacrosse because he wanted to enjoy school.

“Division 3 schools were emailing me but I was never really interested because I couldn’t see myself going to a small school,” Brackett said.

For different people it’s easy and for others, it’s kind of difficult picking a school because of all the schools that are out there.

“When I was looking at schools to go to, I knew I wanted to go somewhere warm and the school’s business program was really good and I got accepted. It was an easy decision for me,” Brackett said.

For some, it was a difficult decision and for others, it wasn’t hard at all. With the help of family, coaches, location, and the academics seniors were able to make the decision on where they plan on spending their next four years for school.