Sign to play college sports now, suit up for May River later

Taylor Gleason and Michaela Manley comprise half of May River High’s first class of college-bound athletes. Give them a couple months, and they’ll actually play for the Sharks too.

In a quirk that comes only with a first-year school, the softball teammates put their names on a national letter-of-intent Thursday before they could appear on a May River lineup card.

“Gosh, it’s so crazy,” said Gleason, who signed for Charleston Southern. “It’s kind of weird because it’s a different school and you don’t know how anything’s going to go. But I’m so excited for our softball team and this program.”

Thursday’s inaugural signing ceremony also featured swimmer Erek Nelson, who became the Sharks’ first state champion in record-setting fashion, and gymnast Ona Loper.

“The great thing about this signing class is we’re all going to be Division I athletes,” said Nelson, who broke the state 100-yard backstroke mark at last month’s Class 3A state meet. “It shows this area can produce some great athletic prospects for college.”

Nelson will swim for Towson University in Baltimore, a rising program that placed third in the Colonial Athletic Association last season. That team featured a freshman who broke the conference record in the 100-yard butterfly, and Nelson hopes to serve as another building block.

“Having him there and bringing in me, I think it’ll help bring stronger athletes to the school,” Nelson said. “I think by the time my junior and senior years come around, we’ll be in a very good position. ... As soon as I walked on campus, I felt I was already part of the program.”

Manley, a catcher headed to Coastal Georgia, and shortstop Gleason came to May River after playing key roles in Bluffton teams that made it to the 2014 Class 4A finals and to last year’s district final.

“I wanted to come to the school because I was going to be part of the first graduating class, the first softball team here, the first everything,” said Gleason, an All-State selection last year whose father, Shaun, is a Sharks assistant.

Loper might wind up with the highest college profile of the quartet. She’ll compete for Minnesota, which has won two of the past three Big Ten titles and is No. 16 in the current NCAA rankings.

“At first, I really didn’t want to go there. It’s really far,” said Loper, who competes for Summit Gymnastics in Savannah. “But the coaches were so supportive, it just felt like home when I went up there. I didn’t want to leave when I visited.”

THOMAS HEYWARD

Madison Cooler, twice the SCISA 2A Region Player of the Year in volleyball, signed Thursday to play for Jacksonville State. Softball player Hannah Cannon, meantime, will join Gleason at Charleston Southern.

Cooler tallied 424 kills — nearly 17 per match — in powering the Rebels to a 22-3 record and a run to the quarterfinals of the SCISA 2A tournament.

Cannon hit .325 last season with four homers and 25 RBIs as Thomas Heyward reached the SCISA championship series, where they fell to Williamsburg Academy in a deciding third game.

IJGA GOLF

Bluffton’s Kayla Kozak, headed to 24th-ranked UCF in Orlando, and Columbia-bound Arjun Puri headed a group of nine players who signed college letters of intent.

The rest of the signing class: Linda Trockel (Louisville), Kanata Irei (Coastal Carolina), Shiso Go (East Tennessee State), Colton Tanner (Utah), Angela Wang (Indiana), Sera Tadokoro (Kansas), Lino Galdin (Mercer).

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Sign to play college sports now, suit up for May River later."