If you play high-school sports in Rhode Island, your chances of receiving an athletic scholarship from a Division I college are about as small as a Del's Lemonade lasting more than five minutes on a hot August afternoon at Scarborough Beach.

For every Jamie Silva who goes from East Providence to Boston College on a football scholarship, or every Chelsea Marandola who dribbles from Johnston to Providence College on a basketball scholarship, there are 100 high school athletes in Rhode Island who don't.

According to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League, 3,306 seniors are playing sports this year. According to an informal Providence Journal survey, about three dozen, or 1 percent, have received full or partial athletic scholarships from Division I colleges.

In other words, for every 100 seniors playing sports this year, one has received a Division I offer.

In addition to equestrians Katie Hagerty of the Prout School and Jackie O'Connell of Lincoln School, Rhode Island seniors playing traditional sports have received athletic scholarships as well. They include:

-Victoria Flowers, the latest in the long line of distinguished throwers from Classical, is heading to the University of Connecticut on a track and field scholarship.

-Classmate Patrick Onye, an All-State football player as well as a nationally ranked thrower, is going to Indiana University in Bloomington.

-Hard-throwing Ryan Westmoreland of Portsmouth is bound for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and teammate John Pedrotty is going to Holy Cross.

-Meredith Ward, the Westerly basketball star, is dribbling to Holy Cross.

-Twins Caitlyn and Meghan Milazzo of Barrington are off to Seton Hall University to play soccer.

-Bay View teammates Brittany Wilson and Kashaia Cannon are taking their basketball skills to Northeastern University in Boston.

For a state its size, Rhode Island has a solid tradition of producing scholarship athletes, just not many of them. A few examples include David Emma of Cranston, who played hockey at Boston College and for the U.S. Olympic Team; Fellow Olympian Clark Donatelli, who played for Boston University; Ron, Brad and Randy Wilson, who went from East Providence to Providence College on hockey scholarships; and Tim Army, the current PC coach, who followed them from the Townies to the Friars.

Christina Batastini went from Classical to Stanford in basketball, Chris Rotelli from Moses Brown to Virginia, where he became the best lacrosse player in America. Jill Craybas took her tennis game from Lincoln School to the University of Florida, where she became an NCAA champion. And Whitney Laiho took her racquet from Middletown to Florida and also became an NCAA champion. It was along time ago, but golfer Brad Faxon was a junior once, and he went from Barrington to Furman. And Billy Andrade took his clubs from Providence Country Day to Wake Forest. Remember Mark van Eeghen, the Cranston West fullback who played at Colgate and won Super Bowls with the Oakland Raiders?

More recently, Will Blackmon went from Bishop Hendricken to Boston College and then to the Green Bay Packers. Liam Coen took his right arm from La Salle to the University of Massachusetts, where he will probably finish the 2008 season as the most prolific passer in UMass history. Joe Mazzulla, the Bishop Hendricken All-Stater, is playing basketball for West Virginia and disinguishhed himself during the 2008 NCAA Tournament.