Today, Feb. 4, Smoky Hill students signed their National Letter of Intent. Senior Byrnell Yount signed her letter for the University of Northern Iowa for track and soccer. Yount said she had been playing since she was around four years old.

“I had no idea where I wanted to go,” Yount said. “But I wanted to do two sports and I could do that [over there].”

The National Letter of Intent is a program for student-athletes, however, students and parents are not required to sign the letter, and no school is required to join, according to nationalletter.org. Once a student signs a National Letter of Intent, they cannot be recruited by other schools. Yount had her club coach tell her about the university and went to check it out.

“There are a lot of out of state tournaments for [the National Letter] and talking to coaches,” Yount said. “Then you just figure out where you’re going to go from there.” Yount had talked to the university before she had signed the letter and the result was promising.

“I played at a tournament and one of their coaches saw me play,” Yount said. “He said that I would be a good fit there and I decided I would be too.” Yount leaves this upcoming summer for the University of Northern Iowa.