Newspaper Page Text
November 23, 2016
PAGE 4B
■
Reporter
Mary Persons celebrates 25-win softball season
Alyssah Mullis: Region 2-AAAA Player
of the Year Award, Varsity Bulldog Award
(Co-Most Valuable Player)
Player
Megan
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Megan Bell: Region 2-AAAA Defensive
Player of the Year Award, Varsity Bulldog
Award (Co-Most Valuable Player)
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Destiny Middleton: Varsity Best All-
Around Player Award
Faith Ann Rozier: Varsity Best Defensive
Player Award
Alexis Passmore: Varsity Coach’s
Award
Emsley Smith: Varsity Academic Award
(4.68 GPA)
Daizha Outlaw: JV Most Improved Player Lauren DeFore: JV Best Defensive
Award, Co-JV Academic Award Player Award
Karina Banks: JV Coach’s
Award
Madison Penn: Co-JV Aca
demic Award
Josie Allen: C-Team Most Im
proved Player Award
Nazari Jackson: C-Team Best
Defensive Player Award
Karsin Bass: C-Team Scholar-
Athlete Award
Alexis Passmore and Destiny Middleton: 1st Team
All-Region 2-AAAA
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2 nd Team All-Regio"
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Lori Smith, Faith Ann Rozier and Tiella Banks: 2nd
Team All-Region 2-AAAA
Katelyn Smith and Jordan Rozier: Honorable Mention
All-Region 2-AAAA
Signings
continued from page IB
closer to home. Sam Mullis said
his daughter decided on Georgia
Southern because it provided her
with the classes she wants and
the chance to play a D-l schedule.
Alyssah Mullis said of Georgia
Southern: ‘The campus is pretty.
It’s beautiful. The coach is great. I
love her. Just knowing my future
teammates, or some of them, it
was just a great opportunity.”
Perhaps the biggest obstacle
Mullis overcame in her college
career was a torn anterior cruci
ate ligament that she suffered in
December 2015 while playing cen
ter for the MP basketball team. It
took Mullis until the start of her
senior softball season to be ready
to catch a full game.
“It was definitely the worst thing
I’ve ever been through,” Mullis
said of her injury. “It, was terrible.
But I overcame it and came out
and did what I had to do.”
MP head coach Hannah
Grossman, who served as head
coach for Bell and Mullis’ final two
seasons at MP, said she thinks
Mullis recovered from the setback
‘better than ever.” Grossman said
it was an honor to coach both of
them, and she’ll miss the off-field
moments just as much as the on
field heroics.
“Just talking with them every
day, you never know what’s going
to come out of their mouths,”
Grossman said. ‘They joke around
all the time, especially Alyssah.
She can be happy one second,
and then the next second you just
don’t know. But it brings charac
ter to her, and the thing that, I’ll
always remember is they always
put in 100 percent. They cared so
much about the sport. That’s just
the memory I’ll remember is their
love for the game.”
As for a favorite on-field high
light, both Mullis and Grossman
agree on their best, memory.
Mullis said it was the night early
in her junior season when she
launched a walk-os’ grand slam
homer off of Veterans ace Avery
Lamb to give Grossman her
first-ever victory as a head coach.
Grossman said that was one of
many nights she’ll never forget
about the seven-member senior
class that brought MP its first
region title.
‘They each brought something
different to the table,” Grossman
said. ‘Together they were just a
great group of girls. And I was for
tunate to come in here and coach
them the past, three years. They’re
unforgettable, their attitudes,
their personalities, and along with
winning a region championship
with this group that worked so
hard for it.”
Bell said she decided on
Morehead State after taking a
visit, with her parents, Jeremy and
Tammy Bell, to view the campus.
"When I visited, I met the people
that are on the team already,”
Bell said. "And I viewed the cam
pus, and I absolutely fell in love
with it. I loved all the coaches.
They seemed like they would help
me get better and better and bet
ter.”
Bell’s mother Tammy noted that
her daughter would be seven-
and-a-half hours from home in
Kentucky. Bell said she didn’t
plan on attending a school so far
away, but said, "I think it will be
good.”
Tammy Bell said her daughter
will be the first member of her
family to attend a four-year col
lege.
“Her father and I are super
proud,” Tammy Bell said. “She is
the first to attend a D1 college.
For her to be able to play a sport
she loves and continue her educa
tion is awesome. Megan has put
in a lot, of time in the past years
practicing and playing school ball
and travel ball. We are also proud
of the attention that, she has put
into school work to make good
grades. We have visited Morehead
State in Kentucky and really like
the atmosphere and what the col
lege and Coach Williams has to
offer. We are truly blessed for her
to have this opportunity in her
life. There will be lots of Kentucky
trips in our near future.”
Bell, who said her favorite high
school memory was making it,
to the state tournament all four
years, said she will be a utility
player at Morehead State, play
ing some outfield and pitching.
She teared up as she talked about
what, her MP teammates have
meant to her life.
Bell said, T grew up with all of
them. I’ve always played ball with
all of them. And I will miss them.”
She also spoke fondly of her MP
coaches, Ronnie Shipman and
Grossman.
‘They did everything they could
to make me a better player and a
better person,” Bell said. “I’m just,
blessed to have this opportunity.”