Hannah DeBalsi Signs Letter of Intent for Stanford

Staples High School senior Hannah DeBalsi was all smiles today as she joined other Staples senior athletes in signing National Letters of Intent. Hannah, who is a two-time All-American cross country runner and owns four state individual track and field records, will attend Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. “It was just the feeling I got when I was there,” she said after visiting Stanford last month. “It felt like I was home. I’m very excited.” The NLI is a binding agreement between an NCAA school and a student-athlete in which the student-athlete agrees to attend the school for one year and the school agrees to provide financial aid to the student-athlete. Signing an NLI essentially puts an end to the recruiting process since participating schools are prohibited from contacting a student-athlete who has already signed an NLI with another school. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jaime Bairaktaris for WestportNow.com