Western Montana Athletes Sign College Commitments

Today is National Signing Day around the country and hundreds of thousands of student athletes signed their letters of intent to play collegiate athletics, including some big-name athletes from Western Montana. Today at Hellgate High School in Missoula, senior point guard Rollie Worster—after initially committing to play basketball at the University of Montana—officially signed to play basketball at Mountain West Conference favorite Utah State. While the 2019 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year will return for his senior year to make another run at the class AA state title game, he decided to take his talents to Utah State because of the Aggies’ game-day atmosphere and program’s structure. “[I chose Utah State] because of the coaches and it’s a fun atmosphere, nice facilities,” Worster said. “But I just think the way they run things there when I was watching their practice, and the way they treat their players was really cool to me.” Meanwhile at Sentinel high school, fellow Missoula basketball star Lexi Deden announced her committment to Montana State despite interest from hometown Montana—the same school her mother Dawn (Silliker) played at from 1984-88. Deden scored over 1,000 points in her career with the Lady Griz, while Lexi’s aunt Karen Deden is the Spartan’s head coach. Although the decision to play for the Cats was tough for Lexi considering her mother had played for the Lady Griz, she says the choice was largely academic. “The really big deal was the engineering program there and I would have had to take two more years with Montana,” Deden said. “It was a really hard decision because my Mom was a Lady Griz. I’ll just root for the Cats now…I think it’s really fun knowing I’m going to go there and be a part of that and it’s fun rooting for them now.” Along with Deden, fellow Sentinel star Aisley Allen also signed on to play collegiate soccer at Idaho State. For the senior Allen, the culture of the Bengal program was the most attractive aspect. “I just clicked really well with the coaching staff,” Allen said. “I think they’ve developed a really great environment and culture on their team and I think that’s really important so that made my decision pretty easy.” Over in Bozeman, it was a big day for three Bozeman High Hawks as they signed their national letters of intent. Senior golfer Cora Rosanova will be staying in town to golf for Montana State, while wrestlers Kaden Westlake and Leif Schroeder will be joining the Lights of MSU-Northern and the University of Iowa, respectively. All three athletes expressed just how much their time at Bozeman prepared them for the next level—but, of course, they each also had their own reason for choosing their respective schools: “I’ve just always dreamed of being a Hawkeye since I was a little kid,” Schroeder said. “I just think you can’t pass up on a dream and it’s just going to be the best fit for me personally.” “A bunch of my friends are on the Montana State team and I really wanted to play golf and Montana State was an option,” Rosanova said. “My sister is on the team, so I wanted to play with her as well.” “They just gave me the opportunity to go there,” Westlake said. “They have the stuff that I want to pursue in college and stuff I like to do up there. That’s a big decision.”