Whitman students, parents and coaches gathered in the gym yesterday afternoon to celebrate the 23 committed athletes from the class of 2019. The figure is the highest number of commits in one year in school history, principal Robert Dodd said during the ceremony.

Parents coordinated with athletic director Andy Wetzel to set up the signing day reception, an event they started this year and hope to continue in the future.

Wetzel made the opening remarks, introducing the event and then proceeding to introduce the coaches who would speak about their athletes.

For the athletes, the day marked an end to a long recruiting process and the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.

“It’s a really stressful, drawn-out process,” Brown University golf commit Amanda Levy said. “There’s always really good competition from the other golfers of your year, so you just try to promote yourself the best that you can.”

For many athletes, the ceremony was an emotional fulfillment of a lifetime dream.

“It was a very cool experience,” Stanford University soccer commit Gabe Segal said. “When you think about commiting, this is the day you think of: signing day. It was awesome to see how many people came out to support us.”