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May 16, 2014Danielle Hicks said to herself a long time ago that a Division I college scholarship was something she wanted to achieve.
Mission accomplished for the talented Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School senior.
Hicks, who earned the North Coast League Player of the Year award and All-Ohio honorable mention honors, signed her national letter of intent to play volleyball at Eastern Kentucky at a ceremony May 14 at the high school.
“I saw something special in her that I saw on Day 1, and I am sure she will live up to all the values she has learned here at VASJ and I can’t wait to see her on the college court,” VASJ Coach Mark Royer '75 said.
Hicks led the Vikings to a Division IV state runner-up finish in 2013.
Former VASJ standout Liz Guard – now Liz Sellers - is an Eastern Kentucky University All-American who returned to her alma mater as the assistant volleyball coach in August 2010. Sellers led the Colonels to back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference regular season championships in 2004 and 2005. She helped the team advance to the NCAA tournament in 2004 and garnered honorable mention All-America honors as a senior in 2005.
Sellers is now an assistant coach at EKU and that certainly added to the allure of committing to the program.
“I loved Eastern Kentucky. The whole aura of everything, the girls and the team when I met them, I connected .... and the fact that Liz went to the same high school, it gave me something to look up to and it added to it,” Hicks said.
“All the hard work and practices have paid off.”
Hicks said she plans on studying exercise science.
