LYNN – Wednesday was a day to celebrate academics and athletics as well as the past and the future, as four St. Mary’s student-athletes signed a National Letter of Intent, accepting college scholarships that will collectively be worth more than $1 million.
Three members of the girls basketball team and one girls hockey player signed on the dotted line at a ceremony attended by their families, teammates, coaches, classmates and teachers.
Jenna Chaplain, of Peabody, is heading to Assumption University in Worcester, which is adding an NCAA Div. 1 women’s hockey program next year; Niya Morgen, of Swampscott, will study and play basketball at perennial Div. 2 powerhouse Bentley University; Kellyn Preira, of Peabody, is heading to Div. 1 Monmouth University in New Jersey, where she will play basketball; and Yirsy Queliz, of Boston, has accepted a full basketball scholarship from Northeastern University.
“All four are gifted athletes who have dedicated themselves to academics as well,” said Jeff Newhall, St. Mary’s athletic director and girls basketball coach. “To get a scholarship shows their dedication to their sport and academics as well.”
St. Mary’s Head of School Dr. John F. Dolan noted the four seniors have a combined 3.85 GPA (out of 4.0).
“This is a generational event for St. Mary’s,” Dolan said. “These student-athletes have achieved at the highest level academically and athletically.”
Chaplain, who has 99 goals and 74 assists in her career, has been at St. Mary’s since the seventh grade. “I figured out a great a community it was,” said Chaplain, who sees Assumption as “a new program and a new opportunity.”
Morgen, who transferred to St. Mary’s as a junior, chose Bentley for the caliber of its basketball program and its reputation as a strong business school, her intended major. “I like the diversity of the school and the community,” she said of her decision to come to St. Mary’s. “I wanted to be challenged and to have the opportunity to excel. It was a great decision.”
Preira has averaged 14.4 points per game and enters her senior season with 634 points. “I loved St. Mary’s from the start. It’s a big family,” said Preira, who will have the opportunity to get a real estate license as a student at Monmouth.
Queliz came to the United States from the Dominican Republic to live with family and friends as an eighth-grader, her parents wanting her to attend high school in the U.S. in order to have a better chance at going to college here. That dream came true Wednesday, and her parents and two sisters were on hand for the occasion, coming in from the Dominican Republic and Pennsylvania, respectively.
“It’s amazing for us to see how she has grown as a sister and a daughter and become better and better as a player. It was a beautiful moment,” said her sister, Yarly.
“I was planning to leave after my freshman year (for prep school), but I decided I wanted to stay because of the community here,” said Queliz, who has 1,039 points and wants to study law at Northeastern.
Queliz and Preira will be seeking their third straight state championship this year (there was no MIAA tournament in 2021 due to the pandemic), while Morgen will be in search of her second.
