Rock Hill High stars, a ‘competitive family’: Meet 15 who signed to play college sports
The COVID-19 pandemic upended college recruiting across all sports and levels and divisions, forcing kids to re-evaluate their athletic dreams — and that certainly happened with Rock Hill High’s Kobe Thurmond.
Though not how you might think.
“I never thought I’d play in college,” said Thurmond, an infielder who signed to play at USC Sumter on Friday morning. “I just really never wanted to. But over the past year, with missing baseball with COVID, I realized how much I missed it.”
Thurmond was one of seven Bearcat athletes to celebrate their commitments to play college sports on Friday morning in the school’s media center. All of them discussed how COVID impacted their final two high school seasons — how could they not? — but each one also shared other interesting parts of their stories, too.
▪ Bryce Jones signed to play soccer at Limestone. He was originally committed to play at App State before the school’s athletic department cut the sport — another effect of the pandemic: “I’m quite excited,” he told reporters Friday. “With this school, you get on campus quite early, so being there a month before even the program starts to meet all these international players, it’ll be fun. It’ll just be a great experience I can’t wait for.”
▪ Jackson Roberson signed to play football at Elizabeth City State University. He said he’s looking forward to being near the beach and learning how to surf. The quarterback and history maven, who is white, provided a thoughtful answer, too, when asked about what drew him to one of North Carolina’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities: “I just want to make a contribution to the team, and hopefully we’ll have success up there,” he said, adding, “I really love history, and the school was there in a crucial time in history. It let Black people in America come to the school when they couldn’t go anywhere else. ... That wasn’t the No. 1 reason why I chose it. But I mean, it’s rich in history, and that’s just another pro it has going for it.”
▪ Rachel Arwood, who put together a solid showing in the state track and field meet last month, signed to run track and cross country at Loyola of Maryland: “I think the athletic department here is like no other. Every sport is special in their own way, and all the sports are really good here. I think it has a really good balance of academics and athletics. I just love being a Bearcat.”
▪ Josh Zeigler, a long-distance runner who signed to Coker College, reflected on what Friday meant to him: “I’ve been doing this for such a long time. Even as a kid, I always had good stamina, so I just decided to keep doing it. And when I’m running, sometimes I’m not gonna lie, I’m dying,” he said and laughed. He then added: “(To stay) motivated, I just think of where I started and everything I went through to get here.”
▪ Cameron Walker, a wide receiver who signed to play football at North Greenville on Friday, said he is ready to move on to college. He said he’ll take plenty that he learned from Rock Hill to his next home in another part of the state, though: “Some of the skills, techniques that (head) coach (Bubba) Pittman taught me, working with him this year, I feel like will help me in the future.”
▪ And here’s Logan Brewington, who signed to play soccer at USC Lancaster. He, like Thurmond, didn’t think he’d play college soccer, but the pandemic reminded him how much he’d miss it if he didn’t play it in college: “I’ve been flip-flopping for the past couple of years, but I (finally decided) I’d do it.”
A Northwestern basketball star punctuates high school career
It makes sense why AJ Thompson chose Newberry College because of the “family environment” he felt the campus and basketball coaching staff had. Family and basketball for so long, after all, have been one in the same for him.
On Wednesday, Thompson signed to Newberry in the media center at Northwestern High School alongside his mother, Angie, and his father, Lamar.
His longtime AAU coach, Thomas Jackson — who met Thompson when he was only in the third grade and has watched him grow into the “leader” that he now knows over the last nine years — was there, too.
And so, too, was John Bramlett. The longtime Northwestern coach who announced his retirment in February not only coached Thompson but also his two sisters, Aubriana and Makenna, when he was the school’s girls’ basketball coach from 2007-15.
Everyone there to see Thompson on Wednesday was — and is — considered family.
“We’re a competitive family,” Thompson told reporters with a smile, this time referring to his nuclear family (specifically his sisters). “My sisters, they think they’re better than me, better than I was, but to me I always took that top spot in my family. That’s just how competitive we are.”
Thompson, a 5-foot-10 point guard, finished his senior season averaging 17.4 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals a game, per stats provided by Northwestern. The two-time All-State player and Herald All-Area first-team selection also shot 39% from three and 79% from the free throw line — and he scored over 1,000 points in his career.
The coaches present on Wednesday could only sing Thompson’s praises.
“High IQ, shooting the ball, dribbling — all of that is great. We have plenty of kids who could do that. But he was a great leader,” Jackson said. “We have a nickname for him, we call him ‘Bull.’ The game’s getting going, and he’s not going anywhere. I knew if I put him on the floor, I always knew what was going to happen and how he was going to play.”
Said Bramlett: “It’s special for me and his family. They have been strong throughout this process. I’m sure they’ve been nervous at times. But they understood that God had a plan. And here it is.”
Deuce McCrorey of the Northwestern football team also made his college athletic plans official after the Trojans’ signing day last month. He will play at Limestone.
York Prep has 4 sign NLIs
The Patriots saw four athletes sign National Letters of Intent last month.
Two will play women’s basketball in college: Tiaura Johnson signed to Columbia College, and Taylar Southall signed to Johnson and Wales.
Kimi Polk signed to play women’s soccer at USC Salkehatchie. And Gavin Bouldin will play men’s basketball at Drew University.
Andrew Jackson has 2 sign
Andrew Jackson saw two athletes sign to play college sports this week: AJ basketball star DJ Ealey signed with Morris College, and Darius Bruce signed to play football at Newberry.
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 1:21 PM.
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