National Letter of Intent Day: Lakes Athletes Sign Off for Colleges

A rich bag of talent filled the Lakes Performing Arts Center Wednesday afternoon as six Lancers signed the dotted line in front of, coaches, friends and family on National Letter of Intent Day.

It was an uplifting moment for each of the Lancer athletes including quarterback and multi-skilled player who announced the University of California as his college of choice yesterday. His final options were between Cal and Washington State University.

"Now I can focus on my next episode," Dozier said who led his team to the this season before falling to the state champion Bellevue Wolverines. "I have to get ready to be the best student-college athlete I can be. Everything else will take care of itself."

Husky fans were disappointed to see Lakes offensive tackle pick the University of Southern California as his next destination. Banner is ranked 16th nationally and first in the state, according to Rivals.com, and will play football and basketball.

"The hardest part was narrowing it down to the last five," Banner said. "With USC it was that home away from home feeling."

Banner's response to not picking UW: "I'm not asking them to be USC fans but I'm hoping they will still be a Zach Banner fan."

Lakes running back signed with Central Washington University. Littlejohn said he plans on playing at least a couple years then review his options. He's majoring in law and justice and wants to be a police officer or a member of the S.W.A.T. team, he said.

"I'm very excited," Littlejohn said. "My dream was to play football in college."

Lakes' out-spoken and boisterous safety/slot receiver Ma'ne Manaea sported a University of Idaho shirt while full back and linebacker Charles Hall Jr. will join Littlejohn at CWU.

Lakes head football coach Dave Miller said there has been a Division I commit to either UW or WSU in recent years but thought an-out-of-state (college) was something this group wanted to try out.

"They'll be a hard act to follow," Miller said. "They cared about each other and made each other better."

On the girls’ side of athletics, Anitaka Knight signed with Tacoma Community College to play volleyball, respectively.