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East Central alumna and current Southeastern Louisiana softball player Mahalia Gibson earried the 2016 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award. By Elton Hayes eh,1y, ,(Cl)Lh, w•nd n t .rcom to come out of it. It was pretty sur prising."

- we were under the radar. We tried to be leaders for the freshmen. We didn't get as far as we wanted to, but as far as growing together and making memories, we were successful in that becaus~ our spir itual growth with Jesus Ouist just grew. And that's what I'm most thankful for." Although Gibson claims Hat tiesburg as her hometown, she spends a significant amount of time in Neshoba County as htir grand mother and other famil} members reside in Philadelphia. "I visit very often," she said. "The reservation is where all ofmy family is, so it's where I'm mainly at a lot. l just kind ofjump from Hat tiesburg to Philadelphia a lot." Gibson is headed to South

eastern Louisiana University next season where she plans to major in exercise science. She said the sim ilarities between East Central and Southeastern Louisiana appealed to her. "What attracted me to the school is that it wasn't too big, and it wasn't too small," she explained. "It's Division I, but it's also like East Central. When 1 got to East Central, Coach Kristin Chancy told me that the) were growing and rebuilding, and she wanted me to be .i part of that.~ Gibson also said the opportunity lo play for second-year head coach Rick f remin, and be a part ofhis first recruiting class, was enticing. See GIBSON, page 82

Gibson starred at Hattiesburg's Oak Grove High School and has played the past two seasons at East Central. As a second baseman this season, she carried a .402 balling average, hit 18 home runs and col lected 68 RBis. During her freshman campaign, Gibson led the Lady Warriors in RBis, doubles and batting average, and was named a First-1eam NJCAA Division 11 All-Amcncan. She said her successful freshman season made her even hungrier for more in 2016. "We had high standards coming into my sophomore season," she said. "We just tried to remember how we played the previous season

After intitally being selected as a 2016 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar finalist, one would think Mahalia Gibson would have received advance notification of winning the prestigious award But that wasn't the case. Gibson actually learned of the honor through other means. "I found out on Facebook," said Gibson, who posted an overall 3.7 grade-point average at East Central Community College. "l was lagged in a status and got a notification on my phone and checked it out. I was like. 'Wow!' 1 knew that I was nominated and selected for it, but wasn't really sure what was going

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