Seven Hills has had many great people of many great talents walk through the halls of their school. Many geniuses, many future successes, and many great athletes. Some of these athletes compete at the highest level playing for their high school team, but others who have been putting in the hours since they were young want to pursue playing sports at the college level. These exceptional athletes have worked extremely hard for the prestige to move on to the college level.

This year, the Seven Hills School has had five seniors who are all going to play sports at the collegiate level. Seniors Avi Mahajan, Lauren Coulson, Maggie Motch, Aanvi Anand, and Eli Cogan are the five hard-working seniors able to play at the collegiate level. Let’s hear about them and their stories, and the road to college sports.

Senior Avi Mahajan  will be attending Washington University in St. Louis to pursue the rest of his academic and athletic career. Avi has been a lifelong tennis player starting at a very young age. He fell in love with the sport and fought to be one of the best tennis players in the state and the nation. With his amazing tennis ability, he desired to continue playing in college, creating “a set list of colleges that matched [his] interests for both academics and tennis,” Mahajan said. He then “reached out to the coach” whom he believed gave him the greatest opportunity to achieve excellence. “I enjoyed every part of the recruitment process, and it went really well for me,.” Mahajan said.  Avi is extremely happy with the way that it all worked out and is glad to be a Bear, but he states that it wasn’t easy, and hard work and dedication is required for anyone aspiring to be a college athlete.

Senior Maggie Motch  will be attending Colby College this fall, going D1 for squash. Maggie has been a squash player for many years and has enjoyed it very much. She is committed and competitive and loves to win on the courts. Her winning spirit and determination have allowed Maggie to strive to become a college squash player at Colby College. Motch stated that she was able to get on the college coaches’ radar by “reaching out to the coaches.”  While in the  recruiting process, she stated that “it was challenging and difficult because you are left in the dark for a long time and it’s hard to read coaches because you don’t know where the coaches’ heads are at.” Nonetheless, she was very determined as she stayed on the coaches’ radar, alerted them about when she was playing so the coaches could watch, and communicated with them. Along with the countless hours that Maggie has put into playing and perfecting her squash game, she was able to get into the squash lineup. “Never give up” is what Motch said.

Senior Lauren Coulson is a volleyball player continuing her academic and athletic career at Roger Williams University, a D3 school. She takes pride in being in a D3 school: “Don’t be scared to go D3 as there is so much amazing competition.” Lauren does both swimming and volleyball, but finds volleyball to be her stronger and better sport,  which she wants to continue playing in college. In high school, she excelled playing on varsity and doing very well. She said her recruitment process was about “finding a school and a coach that are the right fit.” The coach at Roger Williams gave her the best opportunity. Coulson said that she worked really hard, watched a lot of film, and put it together, showing the coaches why she is a different athlete. With that, Lauren will continue the rest of her athletic career at Roger Williams playing volleyball.

Senior Aanvi Anand is  going to Middlebury College also for squash. Aanvi has been a very talented squash player, winning many squash tournaments and events for the school and outside of school. Aanvi stated that her recruitment process was “very long.” She stated that one of the biggest reasons for success is because she reached out to a lot of coaches to find what the right fit was for her. She also stated that she chose Middlebury because not only was it an amazing school, it was also a great academic school. Aanvi stated that it’s important to have a lot of determination and work very hard to achieve her goals.

Through all of these five athletes, you can see the intense and uneasy journey that it took for them to meet their athletic goals in college. It took them a lot of work, but they are now enjoying themselves. Their story can be admired by aspiring college athletes. To the seniors going to college for sports, good luck.