{"id":50582,"date":"2025-11-13T02:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/50582\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T02:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:43:08","slug":"long-beach-poly-celebrates-early-signing-day-for-nine-student-athletes-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/50582\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly Celebrates Early Signing Day for Nine Student-Athletes \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

Signing days are always special at Long Beach Poly, even on a Wednesday in November.<\/p>\n

Poly athletic director Rob Shock calls them his favorite days of the year, and the Jackrabbits hosted an early signing ceremony for nine student-athletes who made their college commitments official. Wednesday marked the first day of the initial signing period for most NCAA sports, with the school\u2019s larger Signing Day celebration scheduled for February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most special days because it\u2019s a celebration of the culmination of everything we ask for,\u201d Shock said to open the celebration. \u201cGo get your degrees and come back here to talk to the kids after. Tell them the wisdom you\u2019ve learned as you go off to college and find out what it takes to be successful academically, athletically and socially as you move on to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the athletes honored at the signing day was softball star Ki\u2019ele Ho-Ching, who finally put pen to paper with the University of Oklahoma. Ho-Ching, the nation\u2019s top-ranked player in her class, recently captured a gold medal with the U-18 Team USA softball team and made her commitment to Oklahoma more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so blessed and I have such a great support system,\u201d said Ho-Ching, who had a few dozen family members in attendance. \u201cI feel like they have my back no matter what I do and I know that they support me. Obviously I have a big family and I know even when I\u2019m far away I\u2019ll have them supporting me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ho-Ching continues a strong family lineage of talented Poly athletes, including her uncle, former Poly and Oregon running back Herman Ho-Ching, and her father, Daniel Ho-Ching, who played football at Poly and Hawaii. She\u2019s also following in the footsteps of her sister, who\u2019s entering her second softball season at Arizona State.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s just carrying on their legacy, especially here at Poly,\u201d she said. Ho-Ching was recently injured during the flag football season and will be sidelined for her senior year of softball. \u201cNot only with flag football, but with softball, even though my season is cut short, I know that I\u2019ve left my mark here. It\u2019s nice knowing I\u2019ve done my part, and I\u2019ll continue to do my part as I move to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ho-Ching had four teammates alongside her who also signed to continue their softball careers. Emoni Lam Sam signed with UC Berkeley, Persjialinah Lam Sam signed with Cal State San Bernardino, Janelle Morris signed with Southern University, and Alayna Veavealagi signed with Mississippi Valley State.<\/p>\n

The five athletes are all coming off their CIF-SS Division 4 softball championship, the first in program history. That title run was led by Poly coach Elizabeth Sanches, who says she\u2019s prouder of her signees for their success in life than for anything they\u2019ve accomplished on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoftball is a game, but life is more important for these girls,\u201d Sanches said. \u201cTheir athletic careers are finite, but their education is forever. I\u2019m proud of what they\u2019ve accomplished on the field, but even more proud that they\u2019re able to go get debt free college\u2014that\u2019s the goal. We protect their peace at all costs. This is about life, not softball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signing Day also featured athletes from four other sports, including 6-foot-8 Poly basketball star Jonas Oware, who signed to Yale after announcing his commitment last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For infielder Tate Hammond, Signing Day was an opportunity to take some stress off his shoulders ahead of his senior campaign on the diamond. Hammond signed with UCLA to continue his baseball career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to get it out of the way and know that I\u2019m officialling going to UCLA,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s nice to do it in front of my family. They\u2019re everything. Without them I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly swimmer Lucas Jue was also celebrated for signing with the University of Louisville. Jue is coming off a standout junior season that included a record-setting performance at the Klaus Barth Invitational, where he broke school records in the 100 backstroke and 500 freestyle.<\/p>\n

Avery Peck represented the Jackrabbits\u2019 cross country team, signing with Williams College. The three-time All-Moore League senior is currently gearing up for the CIF cross country prelims at Mt. SAC next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-50582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}