Six Enumclaw High School athletes – all headed to the world of collegiate competition – were highlighted during a recent signing ceremony.
The six seniors shared the stage in the EHS commons, facing an audience of family, coaches and friends.
The Hornet standouts headed to collegiate athletic endeavors are:
Anthony Mills: It will be “Paws Up” for Mills, who is headed to Chapman University where he will join the Panthers’ lacrosse team. The private, research institution is in Orange, California.
Mens’ lacrosse is one of eight club sports at Chapman and competes at the NCAA Division III level. Mens’ lacrosse is part of the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference which has member schools in Arizona and southern Nevada, as well as Southern California. The Panthers, ranked No. 3 nationally in a preseason poll, defeated the Cal Bears in their February 17 season opener and went on to defeat Cal Poly and battle UC Santa Barbara to a scoreless draw.
John Carrier: The EHS senior will become a part of the football program at Feather River College.
Feather River is a public, two-year community college with an enrollment of about 1,500 students, located in Quincy, California. Located in the northern portion of the state, Quincy’s nearest well-known neighbor is Reno, Nevada, about 80 miles away.
Athletically, the Golden Eagles are members of the Nor-Cal Conference and part of the California Community College Athletic Association.
During the fall season, the Golden Eagles went 2-3 in Nor-Cal play and were 3-7 overall.
Ryan Fehr: The Hornet standout will head to Montana’s Rocky Mountain territory where he will be playing center for the Carrol College football team.
The Fighting Saints compete as members of the Frontier Conference, an affiliate of the National Association of Interscholastic Athletics. Recognized as one of the most successful programs at the NAIA level, the Saints boast 40 conference championships and have played for the NAIA title eight times, winning six.
Fehr is coming off an exemplary senior campaign for the Hornets. At the close of the 2023 season he was named Offensive Lineman of the Year during a vote of South Puget Sound League 2A coaches. For the third time he was a first team, all-league selection. The honors continued when he was tabbed as a first team, all-state performer.
In a Carroll College press release announcing the 29 high schoolers who will be joining the program, Fehr was quoted as saying: “I chose Carroll College because of the culture on campus and within the football program. I love the rich tradition of the football program, and love how the community supports Carroll.”
Carroll College is a private, Catholic liberal arts institution in Helena, Montana.
Wyatt Neu: The College of Idaho will be the new home of the Hornets’ multi-sport, multi-talented athlete.
The Coyotes are looking to build on the great success story that was the 2023 season, a campaign that took the Caldwell, Idaho, team to the NAIA semifinals. To continue that run, coach Mike Moroski and his staff have welcomed 21 new offensive players. That group includes six wide receivers, including the Hornet standout.
Neu put together a terrific senior campaign at EHS that culminated in being named Most Valuable Player in the SPSL 2A.
College of Idaho is a full member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
Gunnar Trachte: A standout quarterback the past two seasons for the Hornets, Trachte will be taking his skill set to Western Oregon University.
He is one of two new QBs joining coach Arne Ferguson’s program and among the 27 players who recently signed with the Wolves. It’s a Northwest-heavy group, with 25 coming from Oregon or Washington.
Trachte will head to Monmouth, Oregon, a Willamette Valley community that sits perhaps 20 miles southwest of the capital city of Salem. There, he will join a team that’s hoping to bounce back from a 2023 campaign that saw the Wolves go 2-6 in Lone Star Conference play (3-8 overall).
Trachte will be taking an impressive set of credentials to Western Oregon University. Following his senior season he was voted the SPSL 2A’s Offensive Player of the Year; as a junior he was a second team, all-league pick; and he was twice honored as the top quarterback at Central Washington University’s summer camp.
Riley Rutledge: Having served as a kicker/punter for the Hornets, Rutledge will perform those same specialized duties as a member of the football squad at George Fox University.
Rutledge had to wait until his senior season to shine for the Hornets, but he made the most of the opportunity. For his accomplishments during the fall season he was named the Special Teams Player of the Year by South Puget Sound League 2A coaches.
At George Fox University, Rutledge will join a Bruins program that went 4-6 during the fall season which included a 3-4 mark in Northwest Conference play. The Northwest is a nine-team conference (eight for football) with all members schools in Oregon and Washington.
George Fox is the largest private university in Oregon, counting more than 4,000 students combined between the main campus in Newberg, centers in Portland and Redmond and those learning online.
