On February 9,  nine Linganore athletes signed to play college sports. One of these star athletes is Ashley Yurich, a captain of the state championship winning girls’ soccer team.

Diane Yurich, Ashley’s mother, said, “I am sad that she is leaving but excited for her. The hardest part about her leaving home is going to be not having her smile and laugh in the house.”

Yurich is a center midfielder who has been on the varsity squad for three years. She finally achieved the state championship title she’s been striving for this 2017-2018 season. She signed to Saint Mary’s College.

Coach Howie Putterman said, “Ashley is the heart and soul of our team, and I don’t know if we ever would have gotten as far as we did without her on the team. She has the ability to make other people want to work harder and become better players. She has that quality which every coach looks for in a player.”

Putterman also said, “I can’t pick one single thing about Ashley that I’ll miss because I’ll miss every aspect of her. She’s an amazing offensive player and has the ability to create plays that other players wouldn’t even think about. Along with that, she also has the ability to defend and is probably the best tackler I’ve ever seen on a field. You knew when she was going in for a tackle that she wasn’t going to come out without the ball.”

She says she was initially drawn to St. Mary’s because “my two siblings attend the school so I knew a lot about it from them, and the campus is beautiful.”

She is undecided in her major but believes she can balance sports and academics while adapting to the new school.