Huntington North High School senior Grace Dill signed her National Letter of Intent with Huntington University on Tuesday afternoon, committing to continue her academic and golf careers as a Forester.
With her decision, Dill becomes the first Viking student-athlete this school year to sign with their hometown school.
"I knew since my freshman year of high school I wanted to play golf in college," Dill said at the signing. "It was a hard decision having to decide from a bunch of different colleges, and the recruiting process was difficult, but I think that, in the end, it was easy to make my decision just because I knew that Huntington University felt like home to me, my family is here, the coaches are awesome, the team is great and it was a really homy environment."
Dill was a rock for the Lady Vikes' golf program during her high school career, playing at a high level for the varsity squad all four years.
Among Dill's achievements as a Viking include a trio of Northeast 8 Conference All-Conference selections, including two First Team honors.
Dill won a pair of individual tournament championships and two individual sectional titles and finished within the top five in every tournament she played in during her junior and senior seasons with the exception of the regional round of the postseason.
As a team, the Lady Vikes won a pair of sectional championships with Dill's guidance on the course.
Huntington North Girls Golf Head Coach Ron Vinson noted Dill's work ethic as one of her biggest strengths—both on the course and in the classroom—and knows that work ethic will continue to serve her well moving forward.
"She's been a great teammate and really wanted to get the other girls to be the best they could be," Vinson said. "On a personal level, I loved every bit of coaching her; she's like another daughter to me. I'm going to miss her for a bunch of reasons, but most of all, just seeing her and watching her grow as a person and player."
Dill knows she will need to put her work ethic and determination to good use in order to take the next step in her game since the level of play collegiately is better than high school.
"I'm very competitive when it comes to golf," Dill said. "I knew college golf would be awesome. It's going to be a lot different. It's obviously going to be a lot harder. College golf is completely different than high school golf, so I'm just excited for the transition to newer, higher, competitive sports."
Dill plans to study either sports medicine or kinesiology at Huntington University.