Every Rockhurst senior faces the same decision: where will I be next year? The question is one that takes careful deliberation and decisive discernment. For at least ten seniors, that process concluded earlier this month.
On Feb. 4, Josh Battison, Charlie Bernstein, George Besch, Jake Bond, Henry Coppinger, Reilly Eagan, Pierce Fisher, Trip Kratofil, Xavier Ritchie and Kevin Sullivan all ceremonially signed with different colleges to continue their athletic careers. The ten will compete in five different sports. The Signing Day event continued a tradition highlighting student-athletes getting the chance to chase their dreams at the collegiate level.
Track & Field
One of these student-athletes is Prep News editor Jake Bond. Bond is already a three-year letter winner in track and field with his senior season yet to begin. He contributed to the Hawklets 2025 track & field state championship in multiple ways, one of which was the historic 4×800 relay team that won Penn Relays and finished second at New Balance Nationals. In addition to track, Bond also competes with the cross country team during the fall season, where he helped the program secure a state championship in 2024. Bond will run exclusively track next year for Creighton.
“It’s like, ‘Wow!’ This is… the fruit of all the work I put in–getting to talk to these colleges. To talk to and commit to Creighton is the fruit of all that work.
“It’s really exciting just to think about continuing to develop and meet new people and, you know, do all the things that I love about this sport–that I’ve loved about it in high school–for another four years at the college level.”
Golf
George Besch represented the golf program at Signing Day. Besch won All-District honors last year, highlighting his breakout performance that helped Rockhurst place third in the state of Missouri. Even with these achievements, Besch’s commitment to Babson College required active dedication to his dream spot.
“I had to do a lot of groundwork on my own to reach out to the schools, because, traditionally, a small school in the Northeast wouldn’t really be communicating with a kid from Kansas. I heard about Babson and sent an email to the coach, and he got back to me within 24 hours, and [it] just kind of went from there.”
Babson is well known throughout the business world as one of the best schools for entrepreneurship, producing notable alums Akio Toyoda, Roger Enrico and Arthur Blank. For Besch, preparing him for life after college was a bit factor.
“I really wanted to choose a school that was going to set me up for the next stage of professional life,” he said. “As far as the recruiting process goes, academics were a really big part, because regardless of how good of a golfer I was, I wouldn’t have been able to play golf there if my academics weren’t up to a certain level.”
With the spring golf season approaching, Besch now turns his focus to helping Rockhurst win another state title. When his career here does wrap up, he will be on his way to Boston to chase his dreams on and off the golf course.
Swim & Dive
Rockhurst’s perennially strong swim program produced two more athletes heading to the next level. Reilly Eagan and Josh Battison played critical roles this year for the Aquahawks, as head coach Paul Winkeler talked about in an interview with Prep News earlier this year.
“In terms of leadership, but also in the water, those are the guys that we turn to.”
Eagan didn’t spend all four years of his high school career as a Hawklet. After transferring in, Eagan had to wait his turn because of transfer restrictions.
“It was a long time of waiting,” Eagan said. “It was kind of a lot of excitement around the senior season, especially after just kind of being in the background during my junior year.”
Eagan and Battison’s recruitment processes coincided with each other, making the simultaneous commitments of the teammates and friends even more special.
“We were talking a lot about [our recruitment]… and what we liked about the schools. And yeah, we did it at the same time,” Eagan said.
Eagan’s commitment to Queens University and Battison’s to Bucknell University highlight the strength of Rockhurst’s swim program. Battison competed at state all four years of his Rockhurst career with the team placing either first or second every year.
Baseball
However, not all athletes at Signing Day came from state championship level success. Baseball, one of Rockhurst’s few programs to not collect a state title within the last decade, has made significant changes in the last few years. Plans for a new field have ramped up, and Rockhurst made a head coaching change in 2024 for the first time in more than 15 years. On Signing Day, the early fruits of these decisions showed with three Hawklets committing to play baseball in college.
“It’s a testament to how Rockhurst prepared [us]…all going to incredible schools [that] have things we want to study,” senior pitcher Trip Kratofil said.
Kratofil’s journey will continue at Washington and Lee, the ninth oldest university in the U.S.
“I think it contributes to the school’s academic prowess,” Kratofil said when asked about the historic nature of the institution. “They’re [a] staple in the… business world, and people know Washington and Lee. I think that kind of caused me to be particularly drawn towards it because it’ll be great for job opportunities out of college.”
Fellow senior Charlie Bernstein will also be attending a high-level academic institution. The right fielder made the decision to play baseball on the other side of Missouri, at Washington University. While at Rockhurst, Bernstein has earned academic all-state recognition in both football and baseball.
Senior catcher Xavier Ritchie rounded out the baseball commitments, signing with Missouri S&T. Ritchie plans to balance his baseball career with his studies in Nuclear Engineering.
“What differentiates them from other… great ballplayers is [that] they both just absolutely love playing baseball,” Kratofil said when asked about his fellow signees. “Whether it’s by themselves or as a team, they’re always out doing something and… [baseball’s] never in the back of their mind.”
Football
Football rounded out the five sports represented on Signing Day. Pierce Fisher, Henry Coppinger and Kevin Sullivan all signed with Division I programs, with the first two on that list adding a rivalry to their friendship.
“It’s awesome because we’ve been playing football together since 5th grade all the way up through high school,” Fisher, a safety, who committed to Drake, said. “It’s honestly just kind of surreal.”
Aside from being a team captain during his senior football season, Fisher is a two-year varsity letter winner in track and field. He is also a three-time academic all-state football player.
Coppinger also signed on to be a future Bulldog. The difference is that the linebacker committed to the Butler Bulldogs, a longtime rival of Drake.
“We’ve gone way back, but obviously we’re on the same side of the ball, so we won’t play [directly] against each other,” Coppinger said, “but it’ll be fun seeing a familiar face every year, and going up against him. It’s always fun.”
Coppinger received the 2025 Bukaty Award—given to the Rockhurst football team’s MVP each year—and earned first-team all-state honors as a linebacker. He is also a two-time academic all-state recipient.
The third Rockhurst football player that committed on Signing Day was senior tight end Kevin Sullivan. As a nationally-rated recruit, Sullivan’s process was much different than the other nine athletes.
“I got a game day invitation to Iowa State. It was just my first experience with any of that stuff, like, the game day experiences,” he said. “And then they just offered me on the spot, which was crazy. [It was] right after junior season in November. November 16, actually, on my birthday.”
That offer was the first of many for Sullivan. The three-star prospect would end up garnering offers from more than 20 D1 programs.
“We had a process, like we had a little chart, just like [to] weigh the pros and cons,” he said. “And [the University of Kansas]… had way more pros than cons than some of the other schools.”
Committing to a Football Bowl Subdivision school like KU opened up financial avenues not as readily available to his Rockhurst brethren, such as direct compensation and name, image and likeness (NIL) money. But, for Sullivan, his decision was about more than chasing a check.
“For me, the NIL wasn’t really the biggest priority. I mean, obviously, just going to a school where I can go and play early on. [Money] wasn’t really the factor that pushed me to Kansas.”
Recruitment Process
Amid the celebration of signing to the next level it can be easy to forget the grind required for these athletes to reach where they are today. Ultimately, each athlete’s journey to Signing Day required hard work, dedication and a commitment to their craft. Even with these factors, many of the athletes were torn on whether they would continue their athletic careers in college.
“I wasn’t really expecting to run in college,” Bond said. “It was something I wanted to do, but something I didn’t really think was going to be on the table for me.”
“I was [at] a level where I knew I’d be able… to throw in college,” Kratofil said. “I think just being able to play for as long as possible is just a great thing because you’re never gonna get to go back and do this like a kid anymore.”
To reach the collegiate level, some of these Rockhurst athletes spent countless hours marketing their abilities.
“I had to kind of go to them, [and] be really proactive with sending video,” Kratofil said.
“It’s a long process,” Fisher said. “I was kind of communicating with some schools about sending them my first three games of the season, and I got hurt, and I missed the first like five or six games of the season, so I couldn’t send them. So, that was a little frustrating, but I just trusted in God and God’s plan, and it all worked out great.”
Eventually, each athlete found the fit they feel is right for them.
“I found Queens, and I took a visit like two weeks after I started talking to them,” Eagan said, “and then fell in love with it, and committed the week after.”
In the end, many of the future collegiate athletes shared the same emotions about heading to the next level.
“It was kind of my dream all my life,” Fisher said. “It’s pretty surreal. Like, it’s a lot of excitement. Also a little bit of nervousness, because, I mean, it’s a grind. It becomes a job.”
“Just a whole bunch of excitement and, I mean, a little bit of nervousness,” Sullivan said. “You never know what it’s going to be like at the next level, but I’m just doing everything I can to prepare for that, and I’m just very excited.”
