Though most of her classmates are only beginning to think about where they want to go to college, junior Hayden Dean has already verbally committed to play Division I lacrosse at the University of Denver.

Dean, a midfielder, averaged three goals per game last season for the Giants, and was placed on the Marin County Athletic League second team. In addition to Redwood’s team, she plays for a club team called Stick With It Lacrosse, located in the East Bay.

According to National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) regulations, college coaches are not allowed to initiate contact to players until Sept. 1 of their junior year.

“If I were to send an email to a college coach right now, even Denver, they wouldn’t be able to respond,” Dean said.

However, she was offered a spot on the team in person after attending a recruiting camp held at the college in late July.

Dean began considering the University of Denver during her sophomore year after her club coach, who played for the Denver head coach at the University of Delaware, suggested it.

She credited her club coach with assisting her in the recruiting process.

“Coaches do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work by contacting college coaches and asking where a certain girl stands on [their] list of recruits, and are [they] thinking of offering her a spot, or are [they] even interested,” Dean said. “My club coach did a lot of work behind-the-scenes talking with the head coach at Denver.”

She also said she believes that the timeline of the recruiting process is pushed earlier and earlier each year, but she is glad that she didn’t commit her freshman year, which is when she began the process.

“School completely changes in four years,” Dean said. “It’s crazy to [commit freshman year.] I would never do it.”

As an aspiring biomedical engineering major, she said that the building of a new engineering department that will open her freshman year at Denver was a major factor in her decision.

Dean, who has been a starter since freshman year, looks forward to having a leadership role on Redwood’s team this spring, which graduated 11 players last year. The team finished 12-6 overall.

She said she will now focus on becoming a starter on Denver’s team as early as possible.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet that I already know where I’m going [to college],” Dean said. “It’s weird. But when my friends are all in the college process, it’s going to be so nice, because I will be able to just focus on school and getting better as a player.”