 Three Wolverines sign with area colleges
Written by: By Joel Priest
5/3/2012
During the past couple months the senior trio, Keenan Moreta, Colt Walker and Breetta Moe, familiar to each other since kindergarten, have inked their names on binding documents, and last Thursday the trio was honored as one for their accomplishments.
Otero Junior College head coach Donald ‘Donny’ Ribaudo and assistant Amanda McMulla, like any staff charged with accelerating a fledgling team from ‘zero’ to ‘something’, sought a scoring punch and got it with Bayfield’s all-time scoring leader, Keenan Moreta, who finished her regular-season career yesterday at home against Center.
“My club coach told me to go check out the school. He offered me a scholarship, and I just liked the coach and the atmosphere…. So I decided to go for it!”
“What drew me to her was how athletic she was…she’s been a basketball player, got speed, got height,” said Ribaudo. “With some good players around her, I think her best soccer’s still ahead of her.”
Colt Walker will dress up to get dirty for OJC Rattler Baseball and skipper Chris Carrillo.
“We don’t get a lot of kids that move on,” said BHS head baseball coach Tom Horton bluntly. “But Colt’s been a starter for us since he was a freshman, been All-Conference for us the past three years, and he’s one we thought would have a good chance of going on.”
But it didn’t come without a mental challenge when last spring, Walker went down for a tryout and Coach Carrillo was unavailable because of a family emergency.
“So I tried out with the assistant coach, and I didn’t really hear anything back from them until this spring, then they contacted me and wanted me to come back. It just went from there.”
“He’s a good defensive ball player…makes the right plays, good decisions…and he’s not a big guy, as you know, but he’s got a lot of heart.” said Horton.
“If you put your mind to anything,” Walker said, “you can usually get it done, as long as you’ve got determination and dedication.”
Breetta Moe will be needing at least twice as much of each of the qualities Walker specified, primarily as a scholarship volleyball player, secondarily as a basketball walk-on at Dawson Community College in Glendive, Montana.
“Probably the big thing that sold Breetta to their volleyball coach, who I’ve known a million years, is that he texted me,” said BHS head coach Kelley Rifilato, “two days before the basketball State Tournament, and wanted to watch her. On the basketball court…and he watched from his office!”
“He texted me afterwards,” laughed Moe.
“I’m super excited about Breetta,” DCC coach John Marble said via phone. “She’s a great competitor, soccer, volleyball, basketball, whatever she does. And she’s a great leader; one of those kids you want on the floor who will make plays, help you win games.”
“ [Marble] sat down with me—it was really cool because he had my jersey out for me and everything.
“I just decided, with the great scholarship I’m getting, that I think it’d be a good thing to do. And I get to play both sports that I really love.”
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