On Wednesday morning, Sophia Leal signed her national letter of intent to join Columbus State University’s women’s soccer program.

The Eastside senior was celebrated in the Eagles’ auditorium alongside family, friends, coaches and teammates.

The link between Leal and Columbus State started with a friendship between her coaches.

“My coach and [coach Jay Entlich] were good friends, and he had a former player go there and I have always trained and practiced with her for the last two or three years,” Leal said. “I went to the ID camp and I loved it. I love coach Joanna and coach Jay. I kept in contact with them and later that year I had my visit with them and I got my offer. I knew after I had my official visit and once I saw the campus that [CSU] is where I wanted to go.”

For Leal, the environment of university as well as the team were two of the things she valued the most when making her decision.

“I am still not sure what I want to study so that part made it easy, because it left me open to a lot,” Leal said. “But really, once I got to Columbus, I loved the team environment and both coaches.”

Last season, Leal was named to the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s (GACA) Second Team All-State. Along with that award, Leal was voted First Team All-Region for Region 8-AAAAA as well as the 2023 All-Cov News’ Most Improved Player.

Leal finished her senior season with 12 goals and nine assists.

The Lady Eagles have made it to the Class AAAAA state playoffs each of Leal’s years at Eastside, and the senior plans to make it there for a fourth time before joining the Cougars soccer team.

“I am looking forward to finishing up my club season and then going back to Eastside to hopefully make it to playoffs again and then working towards Columbus,” Leal said.