EXETER – Kari Melberger was a three-sport varsity athlete from the time she began high school at Wyoming Area.
After one year, Melberger trimmed that to the two sports in which she started as a freshman and started looking to the time when she would be concentrating on then.
Thursday, Melberger made official what she saw coming in her first days of high school.
The senior midfielder signed an NCAA Letter of Intent to accept an athletic scholarship to play field hockey at Bucknell University.
Melberger, who also played a year of basketball for the Lady Warriors, has been a starter in field hockey and softball since the beginning.
“I played softball a lot when I was younger,” said Melberger, who had been part of a junior high field hockey championship team as an eighth-grader. “Then, ninth grade, I played with a bunch of seniors. I was the only freshman (starter). That’s when I realized I wanted to play (in college).”
Melberger added indoor field hockey along with her basketball schedule for one winter, then concentrated even more on field hockey after that. She found other time for to get in field hockey club workouts in the spring and attended camps along with competing in the summer.
The dedication set up a college opportunity and also helped make Melberger a part of the most successful teams the school has ever had in the sport.
Wyoming Area made its first state appearance last season when it reached the quarterfinals. This season, it made it to the state final four for the first time.
“Just growing with my fellow seniors and the juniors was really something special,” Melberger said.
Along with all the wins, Melberger said she is also proud of how well the team competed with nationally ranked Wyoming Seminary, a Wyoming Valley Conference rival which will be playing in its third state final Saturday.
“Those games were really the important ones because we came in knowing we could play well at compete against such good competition,” Melberger said.
Melberger is going into the NCAA Division I school undecided, but expects to pick a major related to business or management.
