A quartet of Stanhope Elmore girls basketball players signed Wednesday to play college basketball, providing the ink on an historic day for the program.
Victoria Harvey and Raven Russell signed with Alabama State University, while Kynnedi Rudolph inked with Alabama Southern Community College and Quentourcia Williams with Huntingdon College, the largest number of signee for SEHS girls basketball program ever.
Harvey and Russell chose Alabama State because of the coaching staff.
“They offered me first,” said Russell, who scored 1,200 points in her high school career. “I gave a lot of respect to their offer, first because there were a lot of coaches trying to tell me — it wasn’t anything solid and this was my first, solid offer.”
Harvey averaged a double-double for her senior campaign (14 points, 16 rebounds), and said she feels blessed to have the chance to play for the Lady Hornets.
“For one, it was the closest place to home. Freda Freeman-Jackson, that’s the best coach I’ve ever seen,” Harvey said. “It means a lot to me because not many people get into college, not many people get the experience of playing on the college level. I think it’s a blessing.”
Rudolph averaged nine points a game, and impacted the game defensively as well.
“I can’t do it without God. I just want to thank God first and I couldn’t do it without Coach Stokes pushing me,” Rudolph said. “Like my mom said the whole season, if I want it, go get it. So I went and got it.”
A Sidney Lanier transfer, Williams wanted to play the final season of her prep career at Stanhope, where her father was part of the last basketball team to win the state championship. With a few collegiate option, Williams chose Huntingdon because it felt like home.
“I had a lot of options, but Huntingdon, they kept coming, they kept coming. They kept giving me all these reasons why me going there would be just like home away from home,” Williams said. “I would have thought I would be playing college basketball. I never thought I’d be having this opportunity. They want me to be a part of their family, to play with them, to grow, to become better.”
