Hitt, Salonick sign deals for scholarships

Kirtley Hitt is going to Cornell, but don't be fooled.

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She's on her way to Cornell College, which is much smaller than the Ivy League school in New York, and it's a school 1,000 miles from Augusta, in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

The Lakeside senior was flipping through the book Colleges That Change Lives when she read about Cornell's "One-Course-at-a-Time" program, which allows students to take one course every three weeks.

Hitt was a standout volleyball player for the Panthers, but Division III Cornell doesn't offer athletic scholarships. As it turns out, she didn't need one.

Hitt applied, was accepted and recently won a $27,000 academic scholarship. She said she was one of five students of Cornell's incoming class of around 1,300 to receive a full scholarship.

"It's pretty exciting," she said.

Hitt's skill as a volleyball player might have boosted Cornell's giving spirit, but she was a student first, surpassing a 4.0 GPA by taking Advanced Placement classes.

Her coach at Lakeside, Danielle Gonzalez, probably wished at times Hitt wasn't so academically inclined. The Panthers reached the state playoffs last season, but lost in the first round without the services of Hitt, who was taking the SAT for a second time.

"She had a good combination of size, athleticism and brains," Panthers volleyball coach Danielle Gonzalez said.

Salonick Amos Jr. is accustomed to running precise routes and having a lot of passes thrown his way.

The former Greenbrier receiver signed April 30 to play football for Brevard College in Brevard, N.C., where the offense of choice is the run-oriented wing-T. Greenbrier ran a spread offense.

Not a problem, Amos said. He expects to get a lot of touches through reverses and swing passes.

"They told me as long as I break the press (coverage), I shouldn't have any trouble," he said.

Amos also played defensive back at Greenbrier, but he said his talks with Brevard coaches have involved just offense.

Amos caught 45 passes last season for 550 yards and five touchdowns. He visited Brevard before receiving an offer and liked its tight-knit campus.

"It really fits me," he said. "I'm not really a party-type person."