As her pen glided through the last letters of her signature on Nov. 13, senior Ellie Viox breathed a sigh of relief. She could check one more thing off her college to-do list—she had just signed her letter of intent to play softball for Missouri University of Science and Technology.

“I verbally committed to S&T at the beginning of this year, so when signing day came around, it was fairly simple, because I only needed to look over the paper work and it was exactly as I expected,” Viox said.

Every year, like Viox, thousands of high school athletes nationwide participate in the National Letter of Intent Day on Nov. 13. It is the first day on which is they are allowed to sign the letters for Division I and Division II schools, according to nationallletter.org.

There are two conditions of the letter of intent, which is a binding agreement, the website states. That “a prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the instructional full-time for one academic year” and that “the institution agrees to provide athletes financial aid for one academic year.”

For senior Miriam Kastens, signing her letter of intent to play softball at Brown University was “kind of a no-brainer.”

Brown’s academics were especially appealing to Kastens.

“They [Brown] have an ‘open curriculum,’ which means students have the freedom to take any course that interests them and that there are no general courses that are required. Going there next year is a great honor,” Kastens said. “An opportunity to play Division I athletics while getting a top-notch education is an absolute dream.”

Its coaching staff, as well, lured Kastens to choose Brown.

“Coach [Kate] Refsnyder does a really great job at finding the perfect balance between work and play,” Kastens said. “She’s very witty and makes sure everyone has a close relationship with her…almost like a mom away from home.”

Senior Maria Smith, who signed her letter of intent with the University of Southern Mississippi, believes that the experience of playing collegiate softball will be valuable.

“Just the adversity you go though…as an athlete there are more than plenty of times where I wanted to quit when it got hard,” Smith said. “But in life you can’t just give up and throw in the towel.”