After four years playing varsity basketball for WA, senior captain Elizabeth Arnold has decided that she will continue her academic and athletic career at Hamilton College, located in Clinton, New York.

According to Arnold, since it is a Division III program, the process of finding a school to play at starts later in high school. Arnold says that although she emailed coaches throughout her sophomore and junior years, the process did not pick up until the spring of her junior year.

Also, Arnold says that the rule with Division III schools is that athletes still have to apply to the school they committed to. However, the team will save them a spot on their squad and offer them their support in the application process.

“I actually [toured] the school in [November 2016]  to look at the school itself, so it was already on my list. Then I reached out to one of the two coaches […] They gave me an offer in August,” she said.

A month later in September, Arnold did an overnight visit at Hamilton and agreed to apply early decision to the school.

Additionally, Arnold says that she was able to go to the September visit along with two other girls, one an AAU teammate, and another she has known from playing her team in both AAU and high school. Both girls eventually committed to play at Hamilton.

“It’s kind of nice knowing that I know people already and I do have friends [there],” she said.

Also, at her overnight visit to Hamilton, Arnold got a chance to meet the other girls and the team and get a first impression on her future teammates. She noticed that the girls were enthusiastic about the idea of Arnold attending Hamilton.

“They’re all wicked nice and really excited about the school, and they were really excited about us thinking about going there and they were wicked nice about answering any questions I had, so that was definitely something that sold me on the school,” Arnold said.

As for the future, Arnold is looking forward to both playing college basketball, but also college itself.

“I’m looking forward to the college experience in general and meeting new people,” Arnold said.

Furthermore, although she is excited to play college basketball, Arnold is also looking forward to the educational opportunities that she will be exposed to so she can get a better idea as to what she wants to do in the future.

“I can pursue a bunch of different things and figure out what I want to do with my life. I’m just really excited to learn new things,” Arnold said.

Her head coach for all fours years on WA Girls’ Basketball, Russell Coward, spoke highly of Arnold and is confident she will be successful at Hamilton.

“Elizabeth has been a fantastic player for WA since she made the varsity team as a freshman, and I am certain she is going to be an excellent Division III basketball player at Hamilton College,” he said.