Eight CBA Brothers celebrate college commitments

ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) -- High school signing days are always special, but they're even more special when you have great local athletes staying in the Capital Region to continue their careers collegiately. That happened Wednesday at CBA, where eight student-athletes celebrated their college commitments.

Among the student-athletes was football star Jake Marra. The CBA linebacker is staying home, signing to play college football at UAlbany. After being a huge part of a section title four-peat, he'll be a part of interim head coach Jared Amborse's first incoming freshmen class.

Marra is all bought in to the next era of UAlbany football. "I went to a bunch of the spring practices and it just felt like home to me, "said Marra. "It definitely felt like the right decision. They gave me a big opportunity to do what I do best, and I wasn't going to let that opportunity slip through my fingers. I told Coach [Bill] Nesselt the day he gave me the opportunity that he wouldn't regret it and that he was going to get everything out of me."

Another player staying local: Christopher Landers, committing to Siena to play lacrosse. Siena just won the MAAC Championship under head coach Liam Gleason. While that's a nice add on, Siena has been in Landers' blood. "It's been my dream since I was in third grade and I started playing lacrosse," said Landers. "To finally be able to do it was everything to me. It made ten years of hard work pay off. Siena has been something that has meant a lot to me my whole life. My dad played there and my mom played field hockey there, so it's been a part of me since I was a little kid and just the opportunity to play there was something I couldn't turn down. Coach Gleason, such an amazing coach. who wouldn't want to play for that guy?"

The full list of athletes can be found below:

HOCKEY
Ethan Premo - Mercyhurst University
Dominic Waters - Siena College

SOCCER
Paul Pettit - Nazareth University

TRACK & FIELD
Jacob Baker - College of the Holy Cross

SWIMMING
Liam Witting - US Merchant Marine Academy

WRESTLING
Marcus Burgos - Rochester Institute of Technology

LACROSSE
Christopher Landers - Siena College

FOOTBALL
Jake Marra - University at Albany