High schools in the Cary area all boast athletic talent across the sports spectrum, and never was that more evident than on Feb. 4, when 20 area athletes from six different sports signed their letters-of-intent to compete collegiately.

The big winner on this day was the Apex football program, which after an unprecedented run through the playoffs last fall, had more players sign (four) on Wednesday than any other program in the area.

The Cougars will have trouble replacing quarterback Houston Hawley, who will play at Ivy League-school Cornell next year as well as running back Kevin Fogg, who is headed to Liberty University. For the last three years, nearly every offensive play has gone through one of the two.

The only other program in the area to have at least three players sign to play again next year at the collegiate level was Panther Creek boys’ soccer. In only its third year of existence, the Catamounts won the Tri-Eight title.

Interestingly, the PC boys’ soccer team and the Apex football program each had a set of twins signing their LOIs. At Apex, the Powell twins, Joey and Josh, decided to go both pursue football at Campbell next fall.

“It was important to us to stay together. We’ve been together for 18 years, it’d just feel weird if we went to different places,” Josh said. “We just thought it was best if we stayed together. We’re best friends, we have a great bond and we didn’t want it to stop. If we were going to continue to play football, we wanted to do it together and not separate.”

Panther Creek soccer players Nate and Gabe Latigue, however, went a different route, with Nate going to Appalachian State while Gabe is headed for Elon. The two said they look forward to their first meeting against one another next fall in the Southern Conference.

“We’ll be head-to-head at the game, but at the end we'll still be brothers,” Nate said.

The Catamounts, like Apex, also boasted a player headed to the Ivy League next fall.

“I just moved here a couple of years ago, so I had always lived in New Jersey. For me, it’s kind of like going home,” Lester Nare said of his decision to play men’s soccer at Princeton next year. “It’s a great campus, new athletic facilities. The endowment is enormous, so you can’t beat what they have to offer.”

Of the 20 who signed this spring, only seven are heading to out-of-state schools. Those who did pick an out-of-state school weren’t likely to venture far however, as three athletes will be heading for states that border North Carolina.

In all, Apex led all schools with nine signees. Panther Creek was next with five, while Athens Drive and Fuquay-Varina each had three athletes sign.

Other schools did not have a signing day but are expecting several more athletes, who have yet to make their college choices final, to sign in the coming weeks. For a look into those decisions, check out the “On the Recruiting Front” updates in the SWakeSports blog.