ATHLETICS | Live Oak athletes sign with colleges

Baseball’s Cam Christ (Galveston College) and football’s David Voorhies and Brady Odell (Louisiana Christian University) also signed.

For White, signing to run in college is the culmination of a dream she said started taking shape during her sophomore year.

“Starting my sophomore year, I started pushing, and I was like, ‘I want to run at the next level. I’m going to make this happen,’” White said. “I think I’ve always seen it.”

Fontenot said it was also sinking in that she signed to run in college.

“It just feels so crazy to actually know that I have actually worked hard enough to get up to the Division I level,” Fontenot said. “It just doesn’t even feel really real.”

White said colleges started to take notice after she set up an NCSA profile, and Southern Miss reached out to her, eventually leading to a visit.

“I’ve always wanted to move, but I didn’t want to go too, too far because I want to be able to come back,” White said. “I went on my visit and I was like, ‘This is perfect.’ I just loved it.”

“I just really fell in with them,” White said of bonding with the team. “I was like, ‘This is great. I like these people a lot.’ I got along with them immediately, and I was like, ‘I think this is a good fit.’”

White said the school’s athletic facilities, including a 40-mile trail on campus for running, played a part in her decision as well.

“You’re able to run these gorgeous trails with lakes and sunrise, and I’m like, ‘That’s amazing. That’s great,’” White said.

White said she’s glad to have the recruiting process behind her.

“I struggled with picking what I wanted,” she said. “That was a big thing because I wanted to make the right decision. I think this a good one. I think it’s going to be good. I’m very glad that I have everything else done and I just get to relax until it’s time to go.”

Fontenot said a visit to Louisiana Tech’s campus in Ruston, as well as a meeting with the school’s coaching staff, helped solidify her decision.

“Tech just made feel so welcomed,” Fontenot said. “It just immediately felt like a place that I can call this home for the next four to six years. It was just an overwhelming feeling that I feel like ‘I actually belong here – like this is where I need to be.’”

The Louisiana Tech track and field and cross country programs are headed up by Brian Johnson, who is in his first season as coach.

“They got an entirely new coaching staff this year, so they are kind of working on rebuilding it,” Fontenot said. “Based on their indoor season results … they seem to be getting the results that they want. After meeting with this coaching staff, they’ve all been very successful coaches in the past, and it seems like all of their goals align with mine.”