Pasadena’s best sign on dotted line

On a day in which thousands of student-athletes across the country transformed pledges into reality through ink, the Pasadena-area also had its share sign national letters of intent on the first day of the early signing period Wednesday afternoon.

Maranatha High’s Jeremy Major, Pasadena’s Rachel Albright, Marshall Fundamental’s Amy Zeronian and San Marino’s Michelle Floyd all signed commitments with respective schools throughout the nation.

Major, an All-Area first-team selection a year ago, signed his letter of intent with Pepperdine of the West Coast Conference.

“It’s a big relief and I’m excited to finally make it official and say I’m going to Pepperdine,” said Major, who verbally committed in January. “I have a lot of respect for the coaches at Pepperdine, who have been at my games and showed me how interested they were.”

Major selected the Waves over USC, Washington State, Utah and the University of the Pacific for various reasons.

“Have you seen the campus? It’s beautiful and it’s a place I want to be,” Major said. “They also have a great business school and that’s something I will be pursuing once I’m done with basketball.”

Major finished as the Pasadena-area’s leading scorer last year, averaging 25.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.9 steals per game for the Olympic League runner-up Minutemen.

While Major stayed close to home, Zeronian, the Eagles’ softball slugger, is heading east as the All-Area first-team infielder selected Belmont University of Nashville, which participates in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Even though the Bruins finished 13-36 overall last season, part of the excitement for Zeronian is joining a team looking to rebuild.

“The coach is in his fourth year and we’re hoping to do big things and I want to be a part of something special,” said Zeronian, who chose Belmont over second-choice Marist College and third-option Fairleigh Dickinson University. “I’m really excited to go and I was looking to get out of California and get a different experience.”

Zeronian verbally committed to Belmont in September with that knowledge that she’ll have family and friends nearby, even 2,000 miles away.

“I know a couple of girls on the team [including Mayfield Senior School alumna Katie Clancy],” Zeronian said. “Plus, my mom’s dad’s family is from Knoxville and I have a friend in Brentwood, all which aren’t that far away.”

As for her most recent softball campaign, Zeronian led the Eagles to a program-best 17-6 record in batting .594 with nine homers, 41 hits, 38 runs and 33 RBIs, while stealing 15 of 17 bases and committing only four errors at shortstop.

As Zeronian heads east, Albright heads northeast to Northern State University of Aberdeen, South Dakota, which participates in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in Division II.

“I always wanted to go away from California and get that small-school and small-town feel,” said Albright, as the school’s enrollment of 3,000 and city population of 26,297 fits the billing. “This is like a dream.”

Perhaps Albright is best known for her days at La Salle, where she spent the first three years playing softball and kicking for the football team before transferring to Pasadena at the beginning of the year for personal reasons.

Albright was La Salle’s second option in the circle last year as she finished with a 3-4 record with a 4.27 earned-run average in seven appearances.

Albright tabbed Northern State over Christian Brothers University, Austin Peay, McNeese State and Dominic College.

Maybe the least bit of drama Wednesday afternoon came from Floyd, who signed with the University of Arizona of the Pac-12 Conference.

The 6-foot-3 Floyd verbally committed to Arizona after her sophomore season and followed up that campaign with a banner 2012 in which she earned All-Area first-team honors after finishing with a 16-7 record and a .088 ERA, while striking out 288 batters over 160 innings.

Floyd was also a menace at the plate, as the No. 3 batter slugged a .493 batting average with 33 hits, 24 runs, eight doubles and one homer.

“She deserves whatever accolades she gets and it’s no wonder she could have chosen any school,” said former Titans Coach Nick Schepperle. “Bottom line, Michelle is a good person and works hard and I’m proud of her.”