Meredith Lovelady signs with Shelton State as parents Billy and Lynn and sister Sarah look on
(RECORD PHOTO/LINDSAY VAUGHT)

MADISON-  Surrounded by family and teammates, Meredith Lovelady became the second Bob Jones girl’s basketball player to sign a scholarship this year Friday when she signed a full ride to Shelton State Community College. She is also the first in her family to sign an athletic scholarship.

Lovelady talked about the support she has had from her parents Lynn and Billy. She started playing for the Mystics at age 6 and learned shooting from working with her father in the yard. She thanked him for pushing her to be the best player possible.

She thanked Coach Danny Petty for “coming to coach our team when we didn’t have a coach. These last two years have been a roller coaster but the coaches taught me a lot about basketball. We had a lot of fun and I am going to miss you.”

Lovelady overcame a knee injury the summer before her junior season. While it did not require surgery it caused her to miss many games that season. She still has to take extra precautions with both knees.

“The injuries held back my basketball career and made me second guess because you have to take care of your body. I didn’t get to play my junior year and I wanted to make up for it my senior year and you always go all out the senior year,” Lovelady said. “I have been working on my knees and putting in some extra work on my knee to get it better.

I love Shelton Sate and am very happy to still be playing. I think this is what was meant for me to do.”

Lovelady will be going to one of the top programs among community colleges in Alabama. SheltonState, located in Tuscaloosa, has won the ACCC championship the last two seasons and eight of the last nine years.

Shelton State Women’s Basketball Coach Madonna Thompson said that she began recruiting Lovelady last summer. Thompson played basketball and graduated from Alabama and takes her team to almost every Sunday afternoon home game there.

“We need a shooter and Meredith is a pure shooter,” Thompson said. “We have got athletes who can run, jump, we’ve got height and speed but we need a catch and release shooter the guards can pass to and Meredith has that ability. Her speed is good, her shooting percentages were really high, her work ethic is good, she is coming from a good school, good coaching from high school and AAU.”

Lovelady came back with a standout season as a senior and that caught the attention of college coaches. In the 2013-14 season, she played in all 29 games for Bob Jones and led the team in three-point baskets hitting 74 of 129 shots for 57%. She averaged 11.5 points per game, second to Chandler Elder at 12.5, hit 81% from the free throw line and 50% from the field overall.

“Plus, she’s a good student and a good person, she is a perfect fit,” Thompson said.

Many Shelton State players move on to play at Division 1 schools. Among them currently are South Alabama, Central Arkansas, and Auburn.

Lovelady is unsure whether she will play on after her years at Shelton State.

“I’ll always want to play but I’ll just play my two years and see how things go. It will be fun being in Tuscaloosa because I have a lot of friends going to Alabama and I may go there but I am more of a War Eagle person,” Lovelady said.

She comes from a family of Auburn engineers. Her father Billy is an Auburn engineering graduate and works at Raytheon and her brother Tyler graduates in May from Auburn in engineering. He could not be at the ceremony because he is on a job interview in Tampa.