Stratford trio stays in state; Peach County's Woolfolk signs with Florida State
Mary Wilson Avant took care of the decision as to where she would continue her softball career very early.
Jackson Pyles didn't even know if he would play college baseball until a week ago.
And Sachin Khurana keep his options open, then decided to stay close to home.
The three Stratford seniors signed their scholarships in front of the entire upper school on Wednesday, with Avant heading to Georgia, Pyles going to Georgia College and Khurana heading to Mercer.
"It's been 618 days since I decided to go to Georgia, which was my dream school to start with," said Avant, who as a pitcher on the softball team won 64 games and had 633 strikeouts in her career. "I waited a little bit before I signed, but I knew that Georgia was where I wanted to be."
Avant, who led her team to a second-place finish this year in the GHSA Class A private school playoffs, is one of two pitchers Georgia signed this year.
"I know I have a lot of work to do because they lost their No. 1 pitcher, so I just want to compete for playing time," Avant said.
Avant, who also starts on the basketball team, runs track and serves as a team manager for the baseball team, admitted that Wednesday was somewhat difficult.
"First of all, I am not much for public speaking, so standing up and speaking in front of all these people was a victory in itself for me," Avant said. "But it is also a day which makes me realize how much I love this school and how much I am going to miss it."
Pyles, who has won 13 games in his career as a pitcher for the baseball team, had some major decisions to make just a week ago.
"I had some small-college offers, but I may have been leaning towards going to a larger school and just focusing on academics," said Pyles, who has a 1.54 ERA in his career. "I had worked out for Georgia College before, and then Coach (Tom) Carty called me last week and he said that he liked the way I threw strikes and that he wanted me to be a part of his team.
"I am just thrilled to get a chance to keep playing, especially at such a great athletic and academic school."
Khurana, who has lost only one regular-season tennis match in his three years as Stratford's No. 1 player, chose Mercer because of the improvement of the tennis team in the past few years.
"Coach (Eric) Hayes has done a great job since he has been here, and four years ago, they were near the bottom of their conference," Khurana said. "But since he has been here, they have moved up to the top three. It was important to me to play at a school where I was going to get much better, and that's how I felt about Mercer.
"I went on a visit and I realized that the campus was like its own city and is somewhat secluded from Macon, and I really liked that. I know I will have to work hard to get into the lineup, but I just want to keep getting better and see what happens."
HEADING TO TALLAHASSEE
Nausia Woolfolk has been a star at Peach County since she joined that program, and she has another season to continue that trend.
After that, she will be headed to the star-studded ACC after signing with Florida State. As a junior she averaged 25.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.0 steals and 2.7 assists per game.
"I am very much excited to be committing to FSU," Woolfolk said on the Florida State athletics website. "It is actually a dream come true. I have always dreamed to set a high standard and a good example for my younger siblings. I felt FSU was honest with everything they said. I knew it would come down to the official visit to honestly let me know if FSU was right for me.
"Right off the bat, I felt the connection between me and the coaches."
BIG MAN FOR PANTHERS
Perry's Chris Clerkley is taking his big body to the Sun Belt Conference and the Georgia State Panthers.
Clerkley, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound power forward, is considered one of the top 30 players in Georgia and among the best big men. He is listed as a composite 3-star by 247Sports and the No. 14 player in the state.
Clerkley averaged 6.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game as a junior, leading the team to a 19-8 record and the GHSA Class AAAA playoffs.
JOINING THE EAGLES
Jones County softball player Madison Cavender had a big year for the Greyhounds in helping lead them to the Class AAAAA Elite Eight and signed with Georgia Southern.
A shortstop, Cavender batted .376 with 22 runs scored and 20 RBI.
WATSON HEADS WEST
FPD track and field standout Robby Watson won two state titles last spring and signed with Southern Miss.
Watson won the Class A private school discus and shot put titles as a junior.
GEORGIA DOUBLES UP
GMC's Kaylie and Karlie Harding both signed with Georgia after leading their team to a Class A public school state title for the second straight year.
Kaylie batted .458 with 22 RBI and six home runs, while Karlie batted .338 with eight home runs and 21 RBI.
-- Daniel Shirley contributed to this report
This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Stratford trio stays in state; Peach County's Woolfolk signs with Florida State ."