FALL SIGNINGS: Local players get opportunity to compete at next level
St. James track star Pressley Miles signed a scholarship with Duke University (Tim Gayle)
Compiled by TIM GAYLE
With all her athletic accomplishments, St. James star Presley Miles had her pick of track scholarships.
The programs were certainly enticing, but Miles decided to take a deeper look at the academic side of the offer.
“I was talking to Harvard, too, so there was definitely that comparison,” the St. James senior said. “But to me, it wasn’t a comparison. To me, it was like Duke was superior because of everything else they had. They’re No. 1 ranked for the student-athlete. They do tutoring sessions to put all their focus toward the student-athlete and I think that’s what sets them apart from other universities.”
On Thursday, the record-setting runner signed her letter of intent to attend Duke in a ceremony in the school gym.
“The team atmosphere at Duke is unmatched,” Miles said. “They have team dinners and they call them family dinners. That’s something that really stood out to me. The coaching staff is incredible, the campus absolutely beautiful. It was really just love at first sight when I stepped on campus. It was the feeling you get. This is where I want to be.”
Duke was one of the first campuses she saw on unofficial visits that were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic last March. Among the interested schools she mentioned at her signing ceremony were Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Harvard, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Princeton, Samford, Lipscomb, Florida State, Georgetown, Boise State, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Oregon.
Presley followed in the footsteps of her sister Sailor, a talented runner at St. James, and credits her with making her the athlete she became.
“When we were little, we used to race to the fountain and back,” Miles said. “She definitely put that competitive fire in me, the need to succeed, to always be better each day, to come back and beat her in every single thing. She definitely pushed me to become the best person I am today and encouraged me along the way.”
Along the way, Miles was named the Gatorade state cross country player of the year in 2018 after winning the first of two cross country championships. Later that season, she became the first runner from this state to win the 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 meter races, a feat she would duplicate twice more. A fourth opportunity was wiped out last spring by coronavirus, but Miles still has an opportunity to add to the trophy case.
She takes her first step toward a championship senior season on Saturday in Moulton at the state cross country meet. She won the 4A sectional last week by nearly 30 seconds over her closest competitor.
In February, COVID permitting, she will compete in four races at the state indoor track meet, then repeat the attempt in May at the state outdoor meet to wrap up her high school career.
Macon East softball star Taylor McKinney signs a grant-in-aid with Troy University. (Tim Gayle)
CECIL – Taylor McKinney couldn’t wait to sign her letter of intent to continue her career in softball, even if the circumstances were a little more subdued because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Macon East Academy standout, a star at Park Crossing High when she was still in middle school, an outfielder for the Birmingham Thunderbolts summer-league squad and one of the Alabama Independent School Association’s top collegiate prospects, signed to play softball at Troy University on Thursday in a ceremony in the school gym.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “It’s mixed emotions. But I’m glad that it’s here because I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
McKinney had settled on the Trojans for a long time, even after recruiting trips to Auburn, Georgia Southern, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State (where former teammate Madisyn Kennedy plays) and Louisiana-Monroe, among others.
“She can play wherever she wants to play,” Macon East coach Glynn Lott said. “She wants to pitch in college. That’s been one of her goals. Troy told her she could pitch and I think that had something to do with it, but she can play wherever she wants to play.”
In her career at Macon East (2018-2020) she owned a .564 batting average, striking out just 24 times in more than 700 at-bats over 162 games. In the circle, she compiled a 1.94 earned-run average with 384 strikeouts.
“She’s a special player,” Lott said. “You just don’t have everything that she has – from being able to pitch to hitting to the speed she has, you just don’t find that.”
She played outfield for the Thunderbolts, but settled into a vacancy at second base when she transferred to Macon East as a ninth grader and has remained there ever since. Along the way, she has earned selection to the all-state team each year while becoming one of AISA’s most dominant players.
“She can play wherever you put her,” Lott said. “If you put her at catcher, she’d be the best catcher. That’s just the way she is. She works at it so hard. You can’t walk out there most days and she’s already out there, hitting off a tee or in the cage.”
The work ethic is the primary reason McKinney wanted to be both a position player and a pitcher in college.
“It was very important to me,” she said, “because I feel like I’ve worked too hard to have to pick one, so I’m glad they gave me the chance to do both.”
Throughout the recruiting process, McKinney listened to a lot of offers from a lot of coaches, but never wavered in her desire to play at Troy.
“I really enjoyed the school and I just love the coaches,” she said. “It just felt like the perfect place for me.”
McKinney holds the school’s single-season home run record with 16 and was named the Alabama Sports Writer’s Association AISA Player of the Year in 2018 after earning MVP honors in the state tournament as a freshman.
She is joined in the Troy signing class by Hoover High pitcher Brookelyn Cannon, Union Grove High (Ga.) infielder Aayanah Hughes, Hewitt-Trussville infielder Crystal Maze and Harrison High (Ga.) outfielder Emma Grace Walker. In the signing day release from Troy, McKinney was listed as a pitcher.
“We are really excited about this group,” Troy coach Beth Mullins said. “They are going to bring in great pitching, hitting and a lot of speed to our program. This group is going to really help raise the standard of Troy softball. They are not only great athletes but all the way around great individuals.”
St. James senior Carson Howard signed a baseball scholarship with North Alabama. (Tim Gayle)
The coronavirus pandemic has created some uncertainty in recruiting, especially for spring sports as athletes were offered another year of eligibility by the NCAA, creating a logjam of returning players that will affect the number of scholarships awarded.
There wasn’t any uncertainty for St. James senior Carson Howard, however. As soon as North Alabama head coach Mike Keehn offered him a scholarship, Howard knew where he wanted to attend college.
“I chose UNA, not only because I felt like it was a fit for me, but my family lives up there and it’s like a second home,” Howard said. “The coaches there are awesome, the staff is amazing, the facilities, it just seems like a family there. It reminds me of St. James.”
Howard announced his intentions at a signing ceremony in the St. James gym on Friday, signing a letter of intent to play for the Lions in front of family, friends and classmates.
“I’ve had Auburn inquire, Alabama, just about every school around this area,” St. James coach Keith Lucky said. “I knew he was going to get his opportunity, it was just a matter of what fit best for Carson. Once he knew that UNA was where he wanted to go, that’s all he cared about.
“You want to find a fit for each athlete, it’s not just to go somewhere as a status symbol, it’s going where you love the school, where you feel comfortable and where you want to play. I can relate to it because I did the same thing.”
Howard has been a starter at St. James since the eighth grade, starting that 2017 season at second base (before later moving to shortstop). Although he’s been a mainstay for the Trojans over the last four years, it hasn’t always been easy, he noted.
“The amount of ups and downs in this journey are more than you would expect,” Howard said. “The days where I’ve been so discouraged, sit at home and do nothing, days where I felt baseball was not what I wanted to do, I just had to tell myself ‘give it a week, the results will be worth it.’ I kept telling myself that every week. It was until the summer this year when I felt like I’ve got this and I don’t have to worry about it any more.”
Howard was among seven players who signed this week with North Alabama, a group that includes pitcher Caden Barnett of Next Level Academy, shortstop Gehrig Frei of South Forsyth High School (Ga.), pitcher Bryse Ingle of Calhoun (Ga.) High, middle infielder Jonathan Lane of Calvary Christian Academy (Fla.), first baseman Luke Lappe of Xavier High School (Conn.) and third baseman Quinn Petty, a home-schooled student from Cumming, Ga.
“We feel that Carson has a tremendous opportunity to be a weekend starter in the ASUN in the early stages of his time here at UNA,” Keehn said in a release from the university. “Carson has an electric fastball that consistently sits 89-91. Carson produces advanced downward angle and command of his fastball. In addition, he is advanced as he shows ability to command the breaking ball and change-up at a high level in any count. Carson’s personality has an edge and competitive level that you cannot teach, which allows him to compete at another level. Carson will also have opportunity to impact our program significantly as a dual player. He has very natural athletic actions on defense and exhibits enough arm strength and hand skills to be in our infield. As Carson matures physically at the plate he shows a great feel for barrel control and rhythm that we feel he will also impact our lineup.”
His last complete season at St. James was in 2019 as a sophomore when he struck out 86 batters in 57.1 innings while compiling a 1.21 earned run average. At the plate, he batted .416. His ERA was roughly the same in the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season and his batting average was steadily climbing after a slow start to the season.
He had offers from North Alabama and Western Carolina and a ton of interest for Power Five schools who are still sorting through their coronavirus issues as they weigh which players will receive offers.
Howard wasn’t interested, however. He already had the offer he wanted.
“Could there have been bigger, reputation wise, schools that could have offered me? Yes,” he said. “Would I have taken them? In all honesty, no. I feel like UNA is right for me, I have a good chance of playing early, I feel like I’ll capitalize on the best opportunities there. To me, UNA is just a fit. As soon as they offered me, I knew it was the place for me to go.”