photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

From left to right: Kennedy Glasgow, Tyler Dye, Selah Simien and Anabel Berger singed their college letters of intent on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, at Lawrence High School.

Three Lawrence volleyball players and a track and field thrower signed their college letters of intent on Wednesday, securing the next chapter of their athletic careers.

Lawrence’s main gym held tables for Kennedy Glasgow, Anabel Berger, Selah Simien and Tyler Dye as they made their college commitments official while surrounded by friends, teammates, coaches and family.

Glasgow signed with Indiana State’s volleyball team, securing her future as a Division I athlete.

“(Indiana State) saw me at (club) nationals, and my team did really well,” Glasgow said. “They emailed me about a couple hours after the tournament and were like, ‘We’d love to have you at our camp.'”

Two weeks after their first contact, Glasgow went to the Sycamores’ camp. She held off on committing, so that way she could make sure it was the right decision and think through everything.

“I wanted to weigh all my options and make sure I was making the right decision,” Glasgow said. “Initially I wanted to go to school far away… but I started to realize I wanted to stay closer to home. I looked at schools in the Midwest, and Indiana State is kind of perfect.”

Glasgow plays in a high-level club team based in Kansas City, where she consistently competes with and against some of the best volleyball players in the country. That experience has helped her prepare for the level of competition she will be going into at Indiana State.

“I knew that making that team and competing against and among the best athletes in the nation, that set me for where I should be playing,” Glasgow said. “It put me where I needed to be.”

Glasgow first got into the sport in third grade after watching and learning from the Kansas volleyball team. She participated in events and camps with KU and fell in love with the sport thanks to those former Division I athletes who gave their time to teach the next generation of volleyball players.

Having spent nearly a decade around the sport, it’s become a part of Glasgow, and it’s something that she plans to be around beyond her playing days.

“I’m in love with this sport — it’s something that makes me me,” Glasgow said. “It’s something that I can’t ever see myself not being in.”

Simien is also going Division I in volleyball, however she’s headed toward sunshine and beaches as she plays for Jacksonville University.

When it came to deciding where Simien would play college volleyball at, it was either close to home or in Florida. The more time she spent around Jacksonville, the more she wanted to go there.

“I love my coaches — the way they pursued me was unlike any other college I was talking to,” Simien said. “Their values and the way they valued my position was something that was super important to me. In talking to them I genuinely fell in love with them and the campus.”

The coaching staff at Jacksonville talked a lot about goals with Simien, not only team and results goals but personal and mental goals. That emphasis stood out to Simien and made the decision straightforward.

“It’s a family, Jacksonville is a family,” Simien said. “They also really care about academics, and that’s something that is important to me.”

Simien feels bittersweet about her college signing. The great news is that it gives her four years of volleyball, but it also means that she’s nearing the end of her playing career. She remembers when she was just a freshman at Lawrence, and now, she’s a few weeks away from graduating early and starting college.

“I’m like, wow, I know that’s going to go by real quickly,” Simien said. “But it means so much that I get to spend it at Jacksonville with these coaches that I love and who love me.”

Simien has spoken to some of her future teammates in this recruiting class, and everyone is excited to embark on this journey together. With her arrival at Jacksonville scheduled for Jan. 7, Simien is working to finish her high school career on a high note academically, while having fun and enjoying her final weeks as a Lion.

Berger committed to Bellevue University, an NAIA school in Nebraska. If she weren’t going to be a Bruin, Berger said she probably wouldn’t be playing college volleyball at all.

Bellevue had tried to recruit Berger since her sophomore year, but thanks to an email accidentally falling into a spam folder, Berger didn’t know until a few months ago.

“I searched up Bellevue because I did get an email about their recruiting camp (in June), and (the original email) came up in this hidden folder,” Berger said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.'”

Berger missed out on playing club volleyball last year because of knee issues. That time away from the sport made her heart grow fonder for it, and it led to her and her older sister, Savanna, talking about college volleyball and Bellevue.

Savanna is a middle blocker for the Bruins, and her experience with the team and the coaching staff helped solidify Anabel’s decision to join the team. While Savanna graduates just before Anabel gets there, that connection still helped seal the deal.

“The coach was like, ‘Would you like to (commit)?’ and I didn’t even consult my parents or anything, I was just like, ‘Yes, I’m committed,” Berger said.

Having seen her sister play for different college teams, Berger had a good idea of what she was looking for in a program heading into the recruitment process. Bellevue made the selection simple, meeting every requirement Berger looked at.

“I saw how they treated her and how they respected all their players and how they were a really good team, and that was all I needed,” Berger said, who grew up in the area. “I knew it was the environment for me.”

The three Lions came together to celebrate their futures apart from one another. From the hours they put into volleyball at Lawrence, it’s a special moment to commemorate all their time together, even if it also signifies the end of that time.

“Selah… we’ve played on a 10U club team,” Glasgow said. “To watch her grow not only as a player but as a person has been a delight. It’s the same with Anabel. I’ve only known her for two years, but her grace on the court as a person will help her grow so much.”

Dye grew up on the Lawrence High School track. His dad Brandon is a longtime coach with Lawrence track and field, first joining the staff in 2010.

At first, Dye was hesitant to join track and field. He wanted to focus on football, and he bounced around through different track and field events without finding one he was passionate about.

“I was forced to do either track or cross-country by my dad, so I decided ‘let’s try track,” Dye said. “Now, I only do track and I only do one event. You just have to try new things, fail at them and then fail slightly less.”

That changed at Lawrence when he learned to throw a javelin. Over the course of four years, he became such a dominant thrower that the school is changing its field layout after the 2026 spring season.

Dye kept throwing the javelin farther than what the field could accommodate and was getting it over a fence that separated the track and field area and the walkway toward the Lawrence softball field. Lawrence track and field coach Audrey Trowbridge said that the team had to change the tip of the javelins to rubber, set up some security at that fence and monitor when Dye was throwing to make sure that nobody would accidentally be hit.

“I’ve been around this building and this program for a long time, and it’s really cool that I can leave a lasting impact,” Dye said. “The goal is to leave more than just an impact on the facility.”

Now, Dye is taking that power to Creighton, which was the first Division I school to reach out to him. After talking to the head coach, who will also be his throwing coach, Dye knew that Creighton was the place for him.

“One day, (Lawrence javelin coach) Logan Shields told me he set up a video call with Creighton,” Dye said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is a huge deal.'”

Conversations with coach Chris Gannon at Creighton lasted over a year, and exceeded Dye’s expectations. He went in thinking he wouldn’t connect with a coach to the level he did with Gannon, and he was able to see how he ran the team.

“It showed the culture of the program, and it showed me that’s somewhere I needed to be,” Dye said. “That environment is something that I’ve been around, and I was scared that I wasn’t going to find a culture like that. So when I knew (Creighton’s culture), I kind of didn’t need to talk to anyone else.”

Dye is the one athlete at the event who still has a season left in the sport they signed with. He’s hunting for the school record in javelin and to finish his career at his best.

Both Trowbridge and volleyball coach Deborah Newkirk spoke about the caliber of each players’ character, as well as their athletic ability. For the two teams at Lawrence, the four athletes made a special impact and will continue to honor their Lawrence legacy at their next stops.