A feature in today's Sun focuses on sisters Brittany and Chelsea Potts, who play for LSU. But the two former Waubonsie Valley standouts are far from the only local players continuing their soccer careers at the NCAA Division I level.
They aren't even the the only sisters doing it.
An unofficial survey of D-I colleges nationwide yielded 26 players with connections to Naperville high schools, Waubonsie or Benet. Included in the group are three other sets of sister teammates.
Kendra and Michelle Collins have been reunited at Missouri after playing together at Neuqua Valley. And don't forget about Naperville Central's Jessica and Lauren Levitt at Illinois, who play there with former Sun player of the year Christina Sahly. And twins Hillary and Jessica Blake are at Eastern Illinois after helping Waubonsie to its second consecutive Class AA state title in the spring.
Here's a look at the others we could find (high school in parentheses):
Colorado: Kelly Butler (Neuqua)
Colorado College: Alexa Bannerman (Waubonsie)
DePaul: Molly Borchardt (Waubonsie)
Florida State: Casey Short (Central)
High Point: Jillie Johnston (Central)
Indiana: Taylor Miller (Benet)
Northern Arizona: Ashley Marrapode (Neuqua)
Northern Illinois: Kelly Mullany (Neuqua); Christen Schuler (Waubonsie); Meredith Repke (Naperville North)
Northwestern: Jill Dunn (Neuqua)
Notre Dame: Brittany Bock (Neuqua), Amanda Clark (Neuqua) and Michele Weissenhofer (Neuqua)
Ohio State: Alex Burzynski (Neuqua)
Tennessee: Alissa VondeHaar (Central)
West Virginia: Meghan Lewis (Neuqua)
The list may not be complete, either. The search was done based on names and colleges who are already known to The Sun. Some players, especially if they never played high school soccer, may have slipped through. Others may have transferred from the colleges they originally played for out of high school.
If you know of somebody not on the list, please let us know. It's an amazing list and it would be a shame if everyone isn't getting the recognition they deserve.

Leave a comment