East Hamilton senior Kyndall Caudle, seated center, is surrounded by family member and her coaches as she signs scholarship papers to continue her basketball career at Lincoln Memorial University.
Ali BirchfieldThe University of Tennessee at Chattanooga reports two acclaimed additions to its women’s golf program in the early signing period: Maria Pineiro from Spain and Maddy McDaniel from Pennsylvania. McDaniel has been part of three state championships with Central Valley High School in Aliquippa and was fourth individually in the 2014 Class AAA state, and she won the 2013 Western Pennsylvania Major and was runner-up at a 2014 Golfweek Junior Tour event in Warren, Ohio, and at a 2015 Hurricane Junior Tour event in Pittsburgh. According to UTC coach Colette Murray in a Mocs release, “She brings enthusiasm, positive energy, as well as a very solid golf game.” Pineiro is the No. 8 women’s amateur in the National Spanish Rankings – “perhaps the highest-ranked player we have ever signed,” Murray noted – and finished second and third in two important tournaments in Spain and tied for sixth in this year’s Spanish International Stroke Play Championship. “Both will have a big impact on our team in many positive ways,” Murray said.
Softball
* Silverdale Baptist Academy senior infielder Ali Birchfield signed last week to play softball for Trevecca Nazarene. She also was recruited by Tennessee Tech and Lincoln Memorial, according to SBA coach Tim Couch, after batting .466 and leading the Lady Seahawks with a .562 on-base percentage, 28 stolen bases and 48 runs scored in the 2015 season. “Ali was one of the reasons we were able to be successful last year,” Couch said. “She is a valuable utility infielder, playing mostly third and short but can play second. She has great leadership qualities.” Birchfield said she picked the Division II university in Nashville “because it is a small Christian school with a program that cares about students growing closer to Christ. I feel like I can come in and compete for a starting position, but I also understand that I will have to earn that and nothing is given.”
Volleyball
* Central High School held a signing ceremony Tuesday to celebrate Rebekah Hill’s scholarship to play volleyball next year at King University, an NCAA Division II school in Bristol, Tenn. Hill, a 2014 all-state player, led Central to state sectionals two of the last three years and totaled 994 kills, 798 digs and 201 aces for her career. She was all-district and all-region all three seasons. She was a home-schooled student when she joined the Lady Purple Pounders as a sophomore but then enrolled at the Harrison school and has stood out also in basketball. She was recruited for volleyball also by the University of the Cumberlands and Martin Methodist but ultimately picked King over Cumberland University. “When I visited King I got that moment – this is it,” she said. “The campus is so beautiful – wow – and I met the coach, and I love the coach (Morris Cephas). I went back after I committed and spent the night and practiced with the girls, and they were so nice.”
Basketball
* Kyndall Caudle of East Hamilton and the Tennesse Xtreme basketball club program has signed scholarship papers to play collegiately at Lincoln Memorial, an NCAA Division II school in Harrogate, Tenn. Caudle, a 5-foot-6 point guard whose mother (Deborah Davis Caudle) played at Cleveland State, said she talked also to Armstrong Atlantic State and Erskine but picked the Lady Railsplitters largely because of coach Krystal Evans and the team in general. “My second time visiting there was when I realized I wanted to go there. Everybody was so nice,” said Caudle, a fourth-year starter who had scored 1,115 points going into her senior season with 187 assists and 140 steals. “She’s a really wonderful person to coach,” new East Hamilton coach Phillip Williams said. “As good of a basketball player as she is, she’s an even better person off the court.”