This has certainly been a senior year that Carroll Academy’s Gracie Turner won’t forget.
Turner was named the captain of the Carroll Academy dance squad and was voted at Miss Carroll Academy by the student body.
On the basketball court, Turner had a standout season, where she averaged 14.3 points a game and 10.2 rebounds to go along with 2.5 steals a game and 2 blocks a game. For her efforts, she was named to the Class 3A-5A All-Star basketball game.
“I thought she did a good job in the game,” Carroll girls coach Sherry Fulton said. “She did a good job defensively. She only had two points but had four rebounds. But I thought she did a really good job on defense. I thought she played well overall and was able to play with everybody on the court. She represented Carroll Academy well.”
Fulton said however Turner went, the Lady Rebels went.
“She was our leader in every way,” Fulton said. “If she had a good game, everybody followed her. She was a really sound basketball player. She was our work horse and worked really hard at practice and always had a good attitude and gave 100 percent. I was really proud of her this year and I thought she really stepped up. I couldn’t have been more proud of her. I thought she was one of the best players in our conference and she deserved to be at the all-star game.”
Fulton said Turner has plans to attend Holmes Community College after graduating from Carroll and possibly pursing something in the medical field.
“She’s a really smart kid and makes really good grades,” Fulton said. “She actually got an offer from the ‘W’ in Columbus to come play over there. They have talked with her several times. We played in those tournaments over there and they saw her play and really liked her. She does have the capability to play at that level and would be a good fit with their program.”
Turner was one of three seniors for the Lady Rebels this year along with Mary Jordan Milton and Laney Claire Dunn. The Lady Rebels only had one junior on the team.
“Those three will be greatly missed,” Fulton said. “I only had one junior and there are only three junior girls in the school. We only had eight players on the team so we will be really young next year. Those three will really be missed.”
Fulton said she appreciated the way Turner handled herself, on and off the court.
“She is well liked by everybody and somebody that her peers look up to,” Fulton said. “She’s also the type of person that the younger kids look up to as well. I pushed her pretty hard on the court but you never heard anything out of her and she gave me everything she had and that’s really all that you can ask as a coach.”
