By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A trio of area athletes have made their college choices.
Paul Dreher and Courtney Teske of Niles, along with Hayley Cashier Buchanan announced that they will attend Western Michigan University, Albion College and Grace College respectively.
Paul Dreher
Dreher will be a preferred walk-on at Western Michigan.
That means he will be treated the same as a scholarship athlete without having his school paid for.
The Broncos will be looking to see if his knee, which was injured his junior season will hold up.
Dreher played this past year for the Vikings and says his knee fine and ready to go.
The Vikings tight end said he was looking at a number of Big Ten Conference schools.
"Purdue offered me the same thing, but I figured I'd get a lot better opportunity to play at Western," Dreher said.
Dreher will be joined on the Broncos' roster by Dowagiac's Jamie Simpson.
Courtney Teske
Teske said she selected Albion because of its education program.
"Everything that I am looking for in secondary education they have and it's kind of like a perk they have basketball there," she said.
Teske noted that they girls on the team were nice and that she really liked the campus.
She was also looking at Hope College, Calvin College, St. Mary's, Indiana Wesleyan, Manchester and Grand Valley.
Teske said that she would probably play forward for Albion, since it is losing four post players to graduation.
"I'll be one of the smaller posts, but I will be a post player," she added.
Hayley Cashier
"I selected Grace College because of the Christian atmosphere," Cashier said. "I am excited about playing at the college level and want to win a championship."
Cashier ended her prep career as Buchanan's third all-time leading scorer and second all-time leading rebounder.
Grace coach Scott Blum said of Cashier, "Haley will bring depth to our program because she has the ability to play three positions."
She will have an impact on our program right away and will add her talent with the class we have coming in."