Where are these two El Capitan High athletes headed to begin their collegiate career?

For 20 minutes, El Capitan High seniors Christopher Giardina and Robin Helms felt like celebrities. The two Gauchos athletes sat at a stable in the school gymnasium as family, friends and classmates held out their cellphones and took pictures.

“I’ve never had that many people taking pictures of me,” Helms said.

The crowd was there to celebrate Giardina and Helms signing their national letters of intent to accept athletic scholarships to universities. Giardina signed to play golf at Dominican University and Helms signed with Hartford University to play volleyball.

“Christopher represents El Capitan High School as well as anybody I can think of,” said Gauchos golf coach Bobby Johnson while addressing the crowd. “I know his coach as the university is going to be happy and proud to coach him the next four years.”

Giardina started playing golf at the age of 6. He says it wasn’t until his senior year that he thought he would have the shot of playing golf in college.

Giardina is a two-time Merced Sun-Star Golfer of the Year. He won the Central California Conference and Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South championships as a junior.

“This means all my hard work has a paid off,” Giardina said. “I have a lot of people to thank to make this happen like my family and coach. They got me to the golf course and all the tournaments.”

The connections Johnson had at Dominican University played a part in Giardina ending up at the school. Johnson’s daughter Tori played softball at Dominican University after graduating from Golden Valley and had a good experience at the school. Johnson reached out to the golf coach on behalf of Giardina.

“My coach helped a lot,” Giardina said. “With his daughter going there. I eventually e-mailed the coach and went on a tour of the campus. I love the small class sizes.”

Helms is excited to attend college in Connecticut.

“I like that it’s as far as home as you can get,” Helms said. “As bad as that sounds, I want a new experience. I want to experience different seasons. I was able to go on my visit a couple weeks ago and I saw the different colors of leaves that we don’t get to see in California.”

Helms was named the Defensive Player of the Year in the Central California Conference this season by the conference coaches.

“Earning a Division I scholarship is something I never thought I’d be able to do,” Helms said. “I look back when I started playing volleyball when I was 9 years old. I never thought this was possible for me.”