It’s the dream of almost every varsity athlete who’s ever laced up a pair of cleats, picked up a bat, or thrown on a set of shoulder pads: a college scholarship. Out of the thousands of high school students who participate in sports area-wide, each year only a chosen few have the distinction of making it all the way to Division-I collegiate competition.
To honor the accomplishments of those seniors—and others like them we simply don’t have room to acknowledge—the Sun shines on four locals who are taking their games, and their lives, to the next level.
Here’s to the future.
Mershad Dillon
football, Santa Maria High School
committed to: Fresno State University
It had been more than 20 years since Santa Maria High School last sent a football player to a Division-I school on a scholarship; then Mershad Dillon rode into town from tiny Brookhaven, Miss., population 9,861.
After his freshman year at Brookhaven High, where he started eight games and helped his team to the league title, Dillon moved in with his father and brother in Santa Maria. The relocation came at the behest of his mother, who saw in California a better opportunity for her son to thrive.
“When I came from Mississippi, the whole school just took me in,” Dillon said of his transfer. “They didn’t judge me or anything because I was from the South. They immediately accepted me.”
From the time Dillon first hit the field, Saints head football coach Mike Regan knew he had something special in the young man he called “the most destructive defensive lineman in the Los Padres League.”
In Dillon, Regan had on defense the rare combination of size and speed that prompts most coaches to salivate. At 260 pounds, Dillon posted an 11.4-second time in the 100-meter dash, outgunning runners half his size.
“It’s just genetics,” Dillon said of his fleetness of foot. “I got it from my dad and my mom. They were fast in high school, too, so it just rubbed off on me.”
With his natural quickness, Dillon led the league in sacks his senior year, averaging nine per game, and displayed a knack for tackling opponents behind the line of scrimmage. As if his effort on the defensive side weren’t enough, Dillon also tried his hand at quarterback his senior year.
Though he contributed more than his fair share on the field, Dillon regrets the Saints didn’t have a better record during his three years. Because of the team’s struggles, Dillon thought he’d end up going to a junior college, if he went anywhere at all.
“We weren’t winning games, so I wasn’t thinking colleges were going to come watch us play,” he said. “When I got my first offer from Cal Poly, that’s when it opened up.”
Offers came next from San Jose State and Fresno State, the latter of which he was waiting for. What he saw in Fresno was a winning tradition and patient coaches willing to teach him techniques he’d never seen before.
Playing behind Logan Harrell, a returning All-American at defensive tackle, Dillon’s playing time as a freshman will likely be sparse. His goals are simply to show up at training camp in shape and prove himself.
Though he’s off the track for now, focusing on getting his grades up, Dillon can’t help but picture himself charging onto the Bulldogs field in front of thousands of screaming fans.
“It’s a childhood dream,” he said. “Their fan base is crazy. Just knowing they’re so loyal, I just can’t wait to run out of that tunnel.”
While Dillon said he’d miss his friends, teammates, and the teachers who supported him, college won’t be completely alien. He’ll have his brother Terrell playing behind him as a walk-on at linebacker, just like he did for the Saints.
As he scanned the Saints’ locker room for one of the last times, the soft-spoken senior with a Southern drawl had a few words of advice for those wanting to follow in his shoes:
“Keep your grades up, train hard, and give it your all on the field. If you love something, and you want to make it, your dream should always come true. My dream came true. I made it.”
Hayley Davis
softball, Righetti High School
committed to: University of Mississippi
While Dillon came westward to the Golden State from Mississippi, Righetti High senior Hayley Davis is heading the other direction; she’s going to Ole Miss on a full-ride scholarship for softball.
For Davis, softball isn’t a mere pastime; it’s quite literally in her blood. Her mother, Tracy Compton-Davis, was a member of both the U.S. National and New Zealand Olympic teams, and won three national championships as an All-American pitcher at UCLA. Her father, Glen “Rocket” Davis, starred for the New Zealand National team and later played professionally in the United States. Not to be outdone, Hayley’s aunt, Heather Compton, also attended UCLA on a scholarship and won two national championships before coaching at University of Florida and Florida State.
With the seeds for success on the diamond sown even before her birth, Davis began playing softball at the age of 3. She moved to Santa Maria from New Zealand with her family at 4. As a sophomore at Righetti, she pitched the Warriors to an undefeated league title, finishing first in the Pac-7 in Earned Run Average, wins, and strikeouts. For those achievements, she was named league MVP and was added to the All-CIF first team in 2009. She made second team All-League in 2010.
The accumulation of accolades led to scholarship offers pouring in from Oregon State, UCLA, Yale, and Texas A & M—to name a few. Drawn by the spirited and friendly small-town atmosphere she encountered on her visit to Ole Miss, as well as the movie The Blind Side (about former Mississippi football player Michael Oher), Davis chose the Rebels, with an eye on academics.
“I’m going into pharmacy, and they have a really strong pharmacy program,” she said. “I didn’t know the coaches personally, but my family knew them. They’re really charismatic.”
Plus, competing in the Southeastern Conference, which has a reputation as one of the toughest college softball conferences in the nation, was a childhood dream come true.
“I’m bummed I have to leave so many people behind that I love,” she said. “But I’m really excited. I’ve wanted to be in the SEC since I was 9.”
In addition to softball, Davis played on the Righetti golf team and organized rallies with the school’s Associated Student Body. While her scholarship is the accomplishment she’s most proud of, Davis said she’d always look back fondly on the fun and camaraderie the Warriors shared as a team.
“My catchers have always been there for me, and they’re a huge reason why I have my scholarship,” she said.
Though softball is no longer an Olympic sport, Davis remains set on playing for the U.S. National team. Like her father before her, she also has designs on turning pro. She’s currently on the New Zealand National Juniors’ team, and she’ll be on the roster when the team heads to the Junior Women’s World Series in Cape Town, South Africa, in December. Where she’ll go from there is anyone’s guess.
“If I continue to want to play softball after college, I’d rather be on the U.S.A. team because they’re more dominant,” Davis said. “But I’m not sure if I’d want to play after college, since it has been such a big part of my life. Maybe I’ll venture and do other things.”
Lara Wilson
soccer, Righetti High School
committed to: West Point (Army)
Growing up, Righetti soccer star Lara Wilson had no intention of ever joining the Army. In fact, when U.S. Military Academy recruiters came calling, she had no idea what a “West Point” was, but she took them up on an invitation to visit the prestigious school and never looked back.
“Everybody there was so welcoming,” Wilson said. “They told me the truth—it’s going to be hard—but there’s so many opportunities that they offer there. It’s so different from going to a normal college, I just couldn’t pass that up.”
Born and raised in Santa Maria, Wilson always made athletics a big part of her life. Her father is a college football referee and her mother is a runner. As a youth, Wilson excelled at soccer and softball, but couldn’t travel for both sports; she chose soccer, playing for a youth club team in Arroyo Grande and dreaming of someday earning a scholarship.
The idea seemed “farfetched,” Wilson said, until she tried out for the premier Eagles Soccer Club team in Camarillo, one of the top clubs in the nation.
“There was one spot left, and I made it,” Wilson recalled. “Every game that I played with them, there were college coaches everywhere.”
Among her suitors were Cal Poly in SLO and UC Davis. She even scheduled a visit to Cal Poly, until an e-mail from a West Point coach changed her mind.
Wilson began her stellar career at Righetti by making the varsity team as a freshman. As the Warriors’ striker and midfielder, she rose to become the team’s leading goal scorer and captain in 2010, leading the Warriors to a league co-championship and sharing the Pac-7 MVP award.
“Without the team getting me the ball where I was in front of the goal, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things that I did,” Wilson said casually. “A lot of times I’d just get the ball in front of the goal and just have to pass it to the side.”
This spring, the Righetti girls won the league title outright for the first time in school history. They made it all the way to the CIF semifinals, but unfortunately, they had to do it without Wilson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against San Luis Obispo in February and had to watch from the sidelines.
Laden with a full leg brace, Wilson is currently undergoing rehab on the knee, but expects to be ready by June—in time for the rigors of basic training.
“It’s hazing, push-ups, sit-ups, running, basically everything you need to learn to be a cadet,” she said. “You don’t really get to experience what it is until you get there.”
A top student, Wilson was involved in the Special Olympics club and was senior class treasurer in Associated Student Body. From there, she had to pass a battery of medical evaluations and an application process that took months to complete. Wilson said she never would have made it without the guidance of her teachers and the leadership she learned on the soccer field.
Wilson once wanted to be a veterinarian, but West Point pays for medical school anywhere after graduation. Now her top choice is to serve as an Army doctor, fulfilling the school’s five-year service requirement.
Wilson also said she’s looking forward to seeing New York City and meeting new people, but admitted leaving home would be bittersweet.
“I haven’t really been to the East Coast except for my visit,” she said. “I’m excited to see a different side of the country than just Santa Maria, because that’s all I’ve really been exposed to.”
Connor Reck
track and field, Santa Ynez High School
committed to: Harvard University
Though he’d earned straight A’s all throughout his high school career, boasting a lofty cumulative grade point average of 4.7, Connor Reck didn’t even have the Ivy League on his radar.
“I always presumed I’d go to a good liberal arts school, maybe Amherst or Claremont [McKenna],” Reck said. “I never expected Harvard.”
Born in Santa Barbara, Reck attended school in Santa Ynez, where his parents teach English and coach. There, Reck was exposed to high school sports early on. As a fourth grader, he practiced with the Pirates girls’ basketball team and played youth baseball. Travel was also a big part of his youth; he visited Europe, Peru, China, Egypt, and South Africa.
Track came later for the lanky senior. In seventh grade, a P.E. teacher at Solvang School took him to local track meets, where he showed potential. His first two years in high school, Reck didn’t have much time for track, running just the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Then, after anchoring the 4-by-400-meter relay team that won the CIF title in his sophomore year, Reck decided track and field was the key his future.
“Once I started just concentrating on track, I could do some extra training. Then the 800 just ended up being a natural thing,” he said. “I just loved it and was more successful, so I just started running a lot and went off from there.”
As a sophomore, Reck won the Los Padres League title in the 400 and made the all-league team in the 4-by-400 relays. However, injuries led him to switch to the 800 to avoid all-out sprints. He came in third at CIF in the event as a junior and earned first team All State honors.
Once he’d found his niche, Reck proceeded to shave seconds off his personal bests in five straight races, going from 2:01 to 1:52 in just six weeks last summer. His time placed him 10th in the nation in his class.
Harvard and Princeton made offerings, and this past fall, Reck made his official visits. After spending a weekend at Harvard, the campus’s lively atmosphere, energy, and motivated student body hooked him.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It happened so fast. It still kind of shocks me every time I think about it. When I think about next year, it doesn’t seem real.”
One of the Crimson’s top recruits for middle distance, Reck will specialize in running the 800, the 4-by-800 medleys, and the 1500-meters. Out of all his track events, Reck said the 800 remains his favorite because of its mixed-bag nature.
“It’s like a real race, where there’s strategy and everybody’s together in a pack, passing people. You set a pace and you kick at the end,” he said. “At the same time, it’s pretty much a sprint also. There’s not a lot of pacing and waiting until the end like a cross-country race.”
Like the rest of the Ivy League, Harvard doesn’t hand out athletic scholarships per se, but by virtue of being recruited and committing on Signing Day, Reck will have access to endowments equaling about $40,000 per year. His schooling will cost him next to nothing.
Reck is entering Harvard undecided, but plans on majoring in economics or finance. He still has his senior track season to look forward to and a trip to India planned this summer before he heads to the Northeast.
“The winter will be a new experience for me,” Reck said with a grin. “But I figure I’ll be able to get used to it—or at least survive it.”
Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 24-31, 2011.