By Jason Greenwald
For The Signal
Santa Clarita Christian School will have five student-athletes represented at the college level after they signed their National Letters of Intent on Thursday.
Megan Dombrowski will be attending Southern Connecticut State University, where she will be playing for its volleyball team. Dombrowski was a setter for the Cardinals and excelled at her position, portraying leadership on and off the court.
The skilled senior setter was named a Division 8 All-CIF player in both the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons. She helped pave the way to a Heritage League title going 9-1 this season.
“She was able to run the court really well with the players we had,” said Cardinals volleyball head coach Darcy Brown. “She knew all of their strengths and knew what it would take to be a successful setter and that makes a big difference in who you have help running your offense.”
Justin Collins will be playing basketball for California State University, Los Angeles as a point guard. Collins was the Heritage League player of the year in the 2018-2019 season, leading his team in the 2019 CIF-Southern Section Ford Boys Basketball Division 3AA championship.
As a two-year starter, Collins has been part of a successful run for the basketball team at SCCS, including the 2017-2018 season when the Cardinals won the state championship against Argonaut in the CIF-State Boys Basketball Champions Division 5AAA playoffs.
“Justin is a tremendously talented player,” said Cardinals basketball head coach James Mosley. “He is a great shooter and one of the best defenders in the valley. Justin has a high level of character and one of the hardest workers I have ever coached. He was the leader of our team and really played a huge role in our success.”
Cardinals quarterback Blake Kirshner has committed to play for University of California, Los Angeles. Kirshner was a four-year varsity player and a two-year starter. As a starter, Kirshner led the Cardinals to an 18-4 record, throwing for a total of 6,830 yards and 87 touchdowns, while only giving up 17 interceptions.
In his final season with the Cardinals, Kirshner appeared in 10 games, completing 175-of-276 pass attempts for 2,925 yards, 39 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also ran the ball 56 times for 96 yards and eight touchdowns, making the All-CIF Division 12 list. Kirshner hopes to make an early impact and learn from his coaches while at UCLA to improve his game.
“I just can’t wait to get out there, I’m super stoked and excited for it,” Kirshner said. “I’ve been working out and trying to improve my game as much as possible before I get out there. I learned a lot of lessons about how to be a leader. I had to take a pretty big leadership role in the years I’ve started there.
“SCCS is on the smaller scale, you don’t get all the flash like a bigger school would get, so you can tell how much you love the game from it. I’m going to go and work as hard as I can because that’s really all I can guarantee to anybody and myself. I’m going to lock in when I get there and be very focused academically and football-wise.”
Ethan Schwesinger, who went through two ACL surgeries on the same knee, will be playing football for California Lutheran University at either receiver or safety. Schwesinger played both football and basketball while remaining focused in his studies, which earned him the Cardinal of the Year Award that reflects a student’s spiritual values, academics and contributions in athletics. He was the top scholar on the football team during the season as well.
“I’m excited, pumped and ready to get to work, especially since I missed so much of high school. I’m ready to just play,” Schwesinger said. “It was so hard, physically and mentally because as soon as you get over a physical hurdle, you have to get over a mental hurdle knowing I can do this 100% without getting hurt. I want to be able to start right away and help the team by playing hard and having fun because that’s the most important thing.”
The third Cardinal football player to commit was Jacob Holt, who will be playing football at Arizona Christian University. Holt was the Cardinal’s lineman of the year and was being recruited by a handful of teams during his senior tenure. He will likely be a nose guard for the Phoenix defensive line.
“Jacob loves the game and has a good mind for it,” said SCCS athletic director and football head coach Mark Bates. “He’s going to be the guy five years from now coaching the youth team and 10 years from now he’s going to be a high school coach, or that guy in the stands that knows just as much as every high school coach.”
