The signing day scene, without fail, unfolds the same way.

You’ve got the big, toothy grins while the digital cameras flash away. The microphone-toting TV guys and notebook-clutching print reporters swoop in, angling for a decent sound bite or quote. Above all, the kid seems overcome with relief.

Yet some of these kids will never strap on a helmet or a pair of shoulder pads.

That’s because they’re not football players.

It may be hard for Texans to believe, but there are other sports in existence besides football. Sure, Wednesday’s National Signing Day often is viewed as Football Signing Day, but it’s also a big day for young men and women who have never made a tackle or scored a touchdown.

Connally’s Kirsten Knox (right) signs a national letter of intent with Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday. Knox will run track for the Lady Lumberjacks.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Kids like Connally senior Kirsten Knox, who signed a national letter of intent to run track at Stephen F. Austin University on Wednesday. Just like a football player, Knox was treated to a signing day ceremony in the gymnasium, complete with a seat of honor, a shiny blue tablecloth and plenty of appreciative onlookers and photographers.

“It’s such a special day for me,” Knox said. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for this day to come.”

Newspapers don’t put out lists of the state’s top track recruits, and Web sites like Rivals and Scout don’t affix star ratings to sprinters and pole vaulters. But suffice it to say — Knox is a blue-chipper.

Last spring, she advanced to the UIL state meet in four events — the long jump, triple jump, 4x100 relay and 4x200 relay. She ultimately helped the team score enough points to capture the Class 3A team title.

Knox said it became pretty clear to her several years ago that she would probably have a chance to run track in college. “When I kept getting first place,” she said. “It kept encouraging me that I was pretty good at what I’m doing.”

Athletes like Knox are no less committed to their crafts than their gridiron counterparts. Midway’s Will Chandler, who landed a diving scholarship from Texas back in November but went through the ceremonial signing-day glitz Wednesday, was dedicated enough to his sport to travel to Austin four days a week just to practice it. That’s because Central Texas doesn’t possess an adequate diving facility he could use.

Chandler has kind of a unique tale. A star gymnast who appeared destined for the Olympics, he was forced to give up that sport due to chronic shoulder pain from repetitive stress tears and bursitis.

He only considered diving when a friend suggested he try it while watching Chandler mess around on a rope swing at the lake.

Waco High’s Jessica Barnett signed to play softball for Concordia University in Austin.
Bobby Horecka photo

“I always wanted to be an athlete in college, but I had no idea it would be for diving,” said Chandler, who finished fourth in the state last year as a junior, his debut diving season.

Now he’s headed to Austin to compete for legendary coach Eddie Reese and the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns.

To put that type of boundless leap into football terms, it would be like a kid playing soccer for 16 years, then suddenly stumbling across football and signing with the Alabama Crimson Tide a year later.

Dreams like these develop all over the place. The glare of Friday’s lights may expose the stories of the football players more often, but the desire and drive and hope is no less fervent in sports’ shadows. Those dreams exist in the minds of young athletes like Waco High’s Jessica Barnett, who signed to play softball at Division III Concordia University, or Belton’s Regan Tindell, who is bound for Missouri to run track. They exist for countless athletes who will scribble their signatures on letters of intent with far less fanfare, on quiet afternoons weeks after the hoopla that is the first Wednesday in February.

Yes, football is king. That much is clear — and long live the king, by the way.

But that doesn’t make every other athlete a pauper.

bcherry@wacotrib.com

757-5714

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