Many star athletes are walking through the halls of Reagan on a daily basis and you might not even know it. It has come time for college signings, and many Reagan athletes are going to continue to their sport at a college level.

Senior Nya Steele is one of the students who signed with a university, and to make the story even more unique, she will be graduating from Reagan a semester early to attend UNC Charlotte and play on their volleyball team.

Steele will enter UNC Charlotte in the spring of 2018. This will help her get settled and begin practicing with the team before the real season begins.

Volleyball has been a part of Steele’s life for a long time.

“I have been playing volleyball since fifth grade, therefore I have been playing for about seven years,” Steele said.

Within those seven years of playing, she has played locally for Our Lady of Mercy and Reagan and the Trinidad and Tobago National women’s volleyball team.

“Last summer I played on the Trinidad and Tobago National women’s volleyball team.” Steele said. “They qualified for the World Grand Prix, the third largest volleyball team in the world, the year before for the first time ever, and this summer I was able to play in the World Grand Prix with them.”

Steele went to Mexico for the first leg of the tournament and then to Trinidad for the second.

“I was also able to play in the Caribbean Volleyball Championship with them,” Steele said. “In this tournament Trinidad won for the sixth year in a row. It was such a phenomenal experience to be able to play on such a big world stage at such a young age.”

Steele has been determined since her first year of playing volleyball to become the best player she can be. With the help of her coach, she began to believe that she would be something special if she gave it her all.

Steele has some incredible teammates who are super excited for her.

“I am super excited for Nya, I think she will do great things at Charlotte and she has worked very hard to get to the place she is,” senior Bailey Hatchet said. “I’m proud of her and can’t wait to see her play in college.”

With Steele starting school in January as well as being on a collegiate sport, she knows that she must meet the challenges that come with being a student athlete at the next level.

“I am glad that I am getting the opportunity to start getting into the groove of things early when I am not in season,” Steele said.

Steele is planning on majoring in biology and then going to dental school to become a dentist. She is very optimistic about her future and the future of the Forty-Niner’s volleyball program.

“I think the Charlotte volleyball team is going to become very good in the next couple of years,” Steele said. “They have some really amazing players right now and I can’t wait to join them.”