It doesn't take an economics major to figure out that Conestoga senior Aaron Van Horn had a productive summer. While most people his age were making
$4.50 an hour to flip burgers or work as a lifeguard at their neighborhood pool, Van Horn made roughly $90,000 this summer.
Ninety thousand dollars?
Van Horn, one of the top players in the state, was invited to the Top 205 Lacrosse Camp at Loyola (Md.) last summer.
As the name suggests, the camp is a showcase for 205 of the nation's top high school lacrosse players. So, of course, coaches from all of the powerhouse colleges were there - notebooks in hand, making notes about possible recruits.
A starter since his freshman year at Conestoga, Van Horn had quite a camp.
He made the camp all-star team and was named his team's defensive MVP. His efforts did not go unnoticed. At the camp's "College Coaches Night," Van Horn - an A student - was quite a hot commodity. Coaches from Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Loyola, Notre Dame and Duke expressed serious interest in Van Horn.
"I was confident that I could do well down there," Van Horn said. "I have worked hard since the sixth grade to make myself into a good player. And I guess all that work paid off at the Top 205 camp."
It sure did. Van Horn visited all the aforementioned schools before accepting a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins, one of the nation's top schools as well as a perennial lacrosse powerhouse.
At roughly $22,000 a year, that's nearly a $90,000 scholarship that Van Horn, who will major in economics, received.
"It's a dream come true," Van Horn said. "Hopkins is just a great school and a great lacrosse program."
"I'm so proud of Aaron," Conestoga coach Dave Traynor said. "He's one of the anchors of our team, and to see a kid who has worked so hard get rewarded with a $90,000 scholarship to a school like Hopkins is just tremendous."
Aside from Van Horn and fellow seniors Ryan McGeorge and Sean Jenkins, Traynor has an entirely new team this spring - with loads of talented sophomores.
