Local athletes headed to colleges to compete
Local high school athletes to sign recently include Catholic’s Haylei Mason, who signed to run track at Mississippi College, AJ White signed to play baseball at Johnson and Wales, Kaitlyn Sutton of ACA signed with Harding to play soccer and Trinity’s J.T. Mathison who signed with AUM to run cross country. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
While many high school athletes are pleasantly surprised when they receive an offer to play collegiately, Haylei Mason isn’t one of those players.
The Catholic senior has known for a long time she’d earn a college offer.
“This was most definitely something that I knew was going to happen,” she said. “It was just about being patient and waiting on the Lord and seeing what He had in store for me. I wasn’t trying to force anything. I wanted to go somewhere I knew I wanted to be.”
Mason held a signing ceremony at the school on Wednesday, signing with Mississippi College to run track for the Choctaws.
Mason is the current 4A state champion in the 60-meter hurdles, the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. She finished first in the 100-meter hurdles in a close race last May (and was fifth in the 300-meter event) and went back to work, trimming nearly a half-second off her time as she blistered the field earlier this month with a time of 14.66 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles after winning the event with a time of 15.07 last year.
In addition to those two titles, she also picked up her first in the 300-meter hurdles this year and the 60-meter hurdles in the state indoor track meet earlier this season.
Mason used her speed this season as a defender for Catholic’s state championship flag football team after the Knights finished as runner-up a year earlier.
When Mississippi College coaches offered her a scholarship, she was already aware of the Choctaws through their recruitment of former Catholic standout Ann Cobb, a track and flag football teammate of Mason.
“Mississippi College was already on the radar because Ann Cobb signed there last year,” Mason said. “It was just perfect. I know I wanted to go to a Christian university so it just happened the way the Lord wanted it to happen.”
And while there may be some anxious moments in unfamiliar surroundings this fall, at least she’ll be reunited with a former teammate.
“She’s a teammate again and that’s exciting,” Mason said. “She loves it and loves the faith-based environment and that’s something that I really wanted.”
Catholic’s White headed to Johnson-Wales
A lot of high school athletes have expectations when they sign with a university to play collegiate sports. Catholic senior AJ White isn’t sure what to expect after being recruited to play baseball at a program that has never previously existed.
“It’s fun because you don’t know what to expect,” White said. “Everything’s brand new.”
White held a signing ceremony at Catholic on Wednesday to announce plans to play collegiately at Johnson & Wales University-Charlotte, who made White one of their charter members of the baseball team.
JWU Charlotte recently hired JaMorri Cunningham as the first coach of the Wildcats’ baseball team, which will begin play in 2026. The Division III private school, a North Carolina extension of the Rhode Island university, are looking for versatility in their first recruiting class and found it in White, a longtime member of the Knights’ baseball team that has played a variety of positions over the last few years, primarily in the middle infield and in the outfield.
“At first, I thought my season was over and I wasn’t going to play any more,” White said. “But I never stopped believing in God’s plan that I was going to play again, so I kept working. And things worked out.”
He admits the choice is a little intriguing, not knowing what position he will play and having no reference point for what to expect in the Wildcats’ inaugural season.
“It’s just trusting the coaches and trusting what they believe in,” White said, “and taking a leap of faith, trust yourself that you can make something happen.”
Trinity’s Mathison signs with AUM
J.T. Mathison tried to find as many extracurricular activities as he could at Trinity, but had no idea that one of the things he loved would lead to a college scholarship offer.
Mathison held a signing ceremony in the school gym on Wednesday to announce he would continue running cross country at Auburn University Montgomery this fall.
“It wasn’t anything I expected,” he said. “At Trinity …. you get to do a lot of different things so I just found the things I love and did as many of them as I could.”
He developed into one of the best distance runners in the state, placing sixth in the Class 3A state cross country championships in 2023, then improving and finishing second this past fall.
As a distance runner, he won the 3200-meter run at the Class 1A-3A state indoor track meet while finishing ninth in the 1600-meter run.
Earlier this month, he was eighth in the 800-meter run at the Class 3A state outdoor meet, fifth in the 1600-meter run and fourth in the 3200-meter run.
Mathison’s performance at the state level caught the attention of AUM cross country coach Ryan Thompson. Mathison, who runs both cross country and track, hopes to continue to do the same at AUM although the Warhawks don’t field an official track team.
“AUM is mainly cross country,” Mathison said. “They don’t have throwers, sprinters and jumpers so we can do big competitions, but we’ll be able to do meets. I’ll be able to do a little bit of the track events, but AUM is mainly cross country.
“I like cross country and track for different reasons. I like the distances but the reason I like the track meets is because when you’re there all day, you get close with your team.”
Mathison is the second local player to sign with the Warhawks’ cross country team this spring, joining LAMP’s Samuel Holmes.
ACA’s Smith signs with Harding to play soccer
Alabama Christian Academy senior Kaitlyn Sutton held a ceremony at the school on Tuesday to celebrate her signing with Harding University to continue her playing career in soccer.
“I’m glad that I was able to do it here with my whole grade here on our last day of school,” Sutton said. “With my parents being able to be here, it’s really special.”
Sutton said the decision to attend Harding, a Division II private school, was an easy one.
“It was just a family-like community and a Christ-like community that really led me to Harding,” she said. “And the team. The coach (veteran coach Dr. Greg Harris) is like a big teddy bear.”
Sutton said the school’s career record for goals scored this season, but also set the school career record for most 3-pointers on the basketball court. Now, after a six-year career on the soccer field, she will leave the high school basketball part of her career behind as she joins the Bison soccer team.
“I guess I’ll just have to play intramurals,” she said.
Sutton is now part of a stellar senior class of 20 athletes that will continue their playing careers at the collegiate level.