{"id":8007,"date":"2015-09-28T08:46:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T13:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=8007"},"modified":"2015-09-28T10:11:42","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T15:11:42","slug":"education-came-first-for-former-nsr-scholar-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/education-came-first-for-former-nsr-scholar-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"Education came first for former NSR scholar-athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ali<\/a>
Ali Manns celebrating a league title with teammates at Lynchburg College.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The acorn didn’t drop far from the tree\u00a0when it came to\u00a0Ali Manns Black.\u00a0 In fact, smarts run deep in the Manns family.<\/p>\n

Ali’s dad, Dan, earned his degree in Meteorology from Penn State and went\u00a0on to work for the National Weather Service and later\u00a0at the National Climatic Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). So did her stepmother, Kathy.\u00a0 Her mother, MaryLynn, is\u00a0a professor in the University of North Carolina system at UNC-Asheville.\u00a0 Excelling is a family\u00a0habit.<\/p>\n

Quite by accident, I first noticed\u00a0Ali as a junior softball pitcher at North Buncombe High School in Weaverville, N.C., while scouting the shortstop from a rival school.\u00a0\u00a0Ali’s\u00a0name\u00a0was familiar to me because it kept coming up in the sports section of\u00a0our\u00a0regional newspaper, the Asheville Citizen-Times.\u00a0\u00a0Still, it was the shortstop I was there to evaluate and she did not disappoint.\u00a0 But I found myself taking notes on Ali, too.<\/p>\n

Ali’s\u00a0team had a long history of mediocrity, but the Blackhawks were\u00a0suddenly emerging as a force in the\u00a03A-4A Mountain Athletic Conference.\u00a0\u00a0Competition was stiff that year, but Ali\u00a0and her teammates, to the surprise of many,\u00a0were knocking off formidable\u00a0opponents one after another.<\/p>\n

There was nothing apparently special about Ali that day.\u00a0 Yet,\u00a0batters from the\u00a0visiting team, including\u00a0the shortstop I was there to watch,\u00a0kept getting out.\u00a0\u00a0Lots of\u00a0weak ground balls to\u00a0the\u00a0infield, the occasional short fly ball to outfielders and\u00a0once\u00a0in a while\u00a0a girl would strikeout, usually looking or going after a pitch\u00a0just off the plate.\u00a0 Ali was as close to Greg Maddux throwing\u00a0a softball that I had\u00a0yet to see.\u00a0 There would be others, granted, but she was the first.\u00a0 Efficient and effective were the words I recall\u00a0jotting down to describe her at game’s end.<\/p>\n

As an NSR scout, I was there to see the shortstop and, because she was a legitimate\u00a0college prospect in my view,\u00a0she was my immediate priority.\u00a0 We spoke following the\u00a0game, I met with\u00a0her and her\u00a0parents the\u00a0next\u00a0night, and\u00a0they enrolled with me on the spot.<\/p>\n

The next day, promptly at 4 p.m., I was sitting behind the backstop at Ali’s\u00a0game.\u00a0 She had jumped to the top of my scouting list and I wanted to\u00a0fully\u00a0evaluate her.\u00a0\u00a0Once again she was terrific.\u00a0 Prior to the game, as usual, I spoke to her coach.\u00a0 He could not say enough wonderful things\u00a0about her: great kid,\u00a0hard worker, superb attitude and teammate, brilliant student.\u00a0 But did she want to play college softball?\u00a0 That was the question which needed to be answered and only she could provide that\u00a0answer.<\/p>\n

This particular game was\u00a0different from the one two days\u00a0earlier.\u00a0 Game One had been against\u00a0what had been a power-hitting team.\u00a0 This\u00a0time, the squad\u00a0played small ball, so it was noticeable that Ali’s approach was markedly different.\u00a0\u00a0First, she called her own pitches.\u00a0 Not the coach, nor the catcher.\u00a0 She was in control.\u00a0 Instead of\u00a0depending mostly on movement pitches,\u00a0she was throwing far more\u00a0inside\u00a0or high fastballs, making it harder for the batters to bunt or slap.\u00a0 She had them eating out of her hand, literally.\u00a0 Another gem.\u00a0 Another win.\u00a0 I was impressed, to say the least.\u00a0 It was obvious, at least to me, that I was observing a very smart young woman.<\/p>\n

Afterward I\u00a0approached\u00a0Ali while she was talking to her\u00a0parents.\u00a0 Her stepmother wasn’t at the game.\u00a0 The coach had mentioned to her that I was a college scout from National Scouting Report.\u00a0 He had done this before the\u00a0game.\u00a0 So, another mark in her favor.\u00a0 Most athletes that know\u00a0beforehand that I’m there to evaluate them show some signs of nervousness.\u00a0 Not Ali.\u00a0 She was cool and unaffected, and barely 17.<\/p>\n

Three days later I enrolled her with NSR, but there was an issue which was to her non-negotiable\u00a0– her major.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She intended to\u00a0pursue\u00a0chemistry.\u00a0 That’s not something we encounter every day with\u00a0most athletes, but Ali was not most athletes.<\/p>\n

The following spring as a senior, she was nearly unhittable.\u00a0 Ali compiled a 16-3 record and 0.43 earned run average. She pitched 12 games in which she allowed three hits or less, including two no-hitters.\u00a0 She also posted a .427 batting average. An all-state selection, she was named the Mountain Athletic 3-A Conference’s Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

\"Ali<\/a>
Ali Manns Black today with her husband and daughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the summer between her junior year and senior year, I was able to get a number of schools interested in her, and\u00a0arranged for her to make several unofficial\u00a0campus\u00a0visits to\u00a0NCAA D-II and D-III\u00a0schools.\u00a0 The ones she was intently interested in were Pfeiffer University\u00a0in Meisenheimer, N.C., and Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Va.\u00a0\u00a0Pfeiffer is a D-II school.\u00a0 Lynchburg, D-III.<\/p>\n

On Day One of the regular signing period of\u00a0Ali’s senior year, Pfeiffer\u00a0sent her an offer and National Letter of Intent.\u00a0 It was accompanied by a hefty scholarship from the college’s Chemistry department.\u00a0 Even so, Ali was more drawn to Lynchburg.\u00a0 Even though Lynchburg was unable to offer her athletic money as a D-III school, Ali chose to go there because she had a plan.\u00a0 It turned out\u00a0to be a great decision and fit for her.\u00a0\u00a0As\u00a0is mandated by Division III member institutions, academics must supersede athletics, and Ali took full advantage of that advantage.<\/p>\n

Over\u00a0the following four\u00a0years at Lynchburg, Ali contributed to a highly successful softball team, helping it win\u00a0a\u00a0conference and regional championship.\u00a0 She wasn’t a star, and wasn’t their ace in the circle, but Ali filled in admirably and was, according to her coach, an invaluable member of the\u00a0Hornets.<\/p>\n

So how does this story end?\u00a0 Ali graduated with honors from Lynchburg,\u00a0majoring in math,\u00a0as it turned out.\u00a0 She was then accepted to North Carolina State and earned her\u00a0Master’s degree in Statistics.\u00a0 Today, Ali lives with her husband, AJ,\u00a0and 1-year-old daughter in\u00a0Washington, D.C., and is employed as a Mathematical Statistician for the\u00a0Unites States Agricultural Department.\u00a0 She and her family continue to be my friends.<\/p>\n

The lesson?\u00a0\u00a0Ali Manns Black was special, yes.\u00a0 Even exceptional in many ways.\u00a0 But what I\u00a0learned most\u00a0from working with Ali is\u00a0that there is a place for every high school athlete who isn’t prepared to give up\u00a0his or her\u00a0competitive spirit, even the brilliant ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The acorn didn’t drop far from the tree\u00a0when it came to\u00a0Ali Manns Black.\u00a0 In fact, smarts run deep in the Manns family. Ali’s dad, Dan, earned his degree in Meteorology from Penn State and went\u00a0on to work for the National Weather Service and later\u00a0at the National Climatic Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[237,235,222,236,238],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8007"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8018,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007\/revisions\/8018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}