photo by: Nick Henthorn

Wheeling Park’s Julia Dunaway, middle, signed with the Drexel Dragons on Wednesday inside Wheeling Park High School. Dunaway will join the Dragons as part of their girls soccer team. Front row from left is father Chris, Julia Dunaway, and mother Dawn. Back row is Wheeling Park head girls soccer coach Tom Smith.

WHEELING — A highly decorated Patriot will soon have another feather in her cap as Wheeling Park senior soccer star Julia Dunaway held a public signing ceremony Wednesday inside Wheeling Park High School, signing with Drexel University to continue her soccer career into the collegiate ranks.

Dunaway has received every accolade in the book– all-state, All-Valley, Regional Player of the Year, OVAC Player of the Year, SSAC Class AAA Player of the Year, and more, and now she’ll get the chance to add even more accomplishments to her resume with the Dragons of Drexel.

“It’s a phenomenal school academically, first of all,” Wheeling Park head coach Tom Smith said after the ceremony. “And then athletically, she’s gonna be playing D1 soccer, and the transition from high school to Division 1 soccer obviously is a big leap. I think she’s been training for the last four years or so to play multiple positions to make herself valuable wherever she is in the field. And that should open her up to playing time with her ability to be versatile with her field skills.”

As for the decision to attend Drexel, Dunaway had done her research.

“They have a really cool co-op program, where they’ll help you get an internship or a job to help you prepare for your next chapters of life,” Dunaway said of Drexel. “And I also really like the coaching staff and just the school as a whole. And I just think the environment is really what I was looking for in a college.”

Dunaway helped lead the Wheeling Park Patriots to the state semifinals this year, and paced the Patriots with 40 goals on the season. Dunaway is once again a candidate to be an SSAC Player of the Year this year.

“She’s always the focus of attention on anything that we play,” Smith said. “With all of her accomplishments and as well as she did, most of the time she was double teamed, and triple teamed at other times. So to be able to play to her level with all of the attention from the other team is always remarkable.

“I mean, she just overachieved in everything, school and sports, and I’m just very happy for her.”

The appreciation ran both ways for Dunaway.

“Just as a Park soccer team, they’ve always been really supportive of me and just helping me play at my best level,” Dunaway said. “We made it downstate this year, and just having a high-level, quality team that just pushes you to be your best day in and day out, it’s been great.”

Dunaway plans to major in biology at Drexel University.