North Valleys has four sign for college athletics

Two North Valleys football players will help get a college program off the ground and two more athletes will be among the first in their families to go to college.

The four North Valleys athletes signed for college at the school on Wednesday.

Hailey Calderon-Martinez will go to Walla Walla University in Washington to play basketball.

Diamond Solorzano will continue her volleyball career at Lassen Community College in Susanville.

Jeremiah McBride and Nathaniel Monticelli will play football at Simpson University, an NAIA school in Redding, Calif., where Monticelli will play receiver and McBride will be at linebacker.

Monticelli has a 3.6 weighted GPA and McBride has a 3.3 GPA. Both plan to study kinesiology. In addition to football, McBride wrestles and is on the North Valleys track team.

Monticelli also plays basketball and runs track.

Simpson, an NAIA Christian school, added football as its 20th sport last year. The 2023 season will be scrimmage only with a full season in 2024. The Red Hawks hired Shawn Daniels as the school's first coach in December.

Calderon-Martinez, who also runs cross country and is on the track team, is one of the first in her family to go to college.

"It's a huge accomplishment for me," she said. "I know my family is proud and I'm setting a good example for my siblings coming up."

She said Zach LeMay, the North Valleys basketball coach, was a big help in getting the attention of college coaches.

She plans to study biology and then go to dental school.

Solorzano is also one of the first in her family to to go to college. She said she never thought she would be able to play volleyball in college and appreciates the opportunity.

She said the Lassen coaches saw her play at a tournament last fall and asked her club coaches about her

She plans to study psychology and criminal justice.

Solorzano, who also plays basketball, said the pandemic cut out part of her high school experience as schools went to distance learning, and she had to learn a lot about life on her own while at home.

"I didn't get to have much of a high school experience. I matured very fast in the quarantine," she said.

Jim Krajewski covers college, high school and youth sports for the Reno Gazette Journal. Follow him on Twitter @RGJPreps. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com.