SOUTH WEBSTER — Apparently, South Webster’s Natalie Adkins is channeling an inner John Denver —and will experience a Rocky Mount high.

Rocky Mount in the great state of North Carolina that is.

That’s because the five-foot and 11-inch Adkins, known for jumping high to spike the volleyball low, is bound to play collegiate volleyball at North Carolina Wesleyan University —located in Rocky Mount and about an hour from the Tar Heel State coast.

It’s also an hour from the North Carolina capital of Raleigh, and is a private Methodist university founded rather recently in 1956.

Speaking of recent, Adkins officially announced her intention to play for the NCAA’s Division III Bishops —having contributed in the rotation her first two Jeep seasons, before starting and amassing 216 kills and 36 total blocks as a senior middle hitter.

Adkins is one of an estimated 1,000 new freshmen for NCWU, which features 14 athletic programs — and is a member of the USA South Athletic Conference.

In fact, the Bishops are the defending conference champions for volleyball.

Adkins was flanked at her recent signing ceremony at South Webster by her mother Megan Smith, her brother Logan Adkins, SWHS volleyball head coach Darcee Claxon, and several friends and Jeep teammates.

Adkins admitted in deciding upon NCWU, she “knew I wanted to go to college far away from home”.

“It’s about seven-and-a-hour hours away from here (South Webster), and as soon as I visited back in February and walked on campus for the first time, I felt like part of a family,” she said. “It’s a small school, and I wanted to be at a smaller school to have that family feel. It gave me that.”

Adkins also expressed interest in other schools near NC Wesleyan, along with Piedmont College in Georgia, but the Rocky Mount-based campus won out —including over Hiram in-state.

The Bishop staff recruited her to play primarily middle hitter, her natural position as she made all-Southern Ohio Conference Division II first team and District 14 Coaches Association Division IV Honorable Mention as a senior.

She played in all 88 of the Jeeps’ season sets, with percentages of 37 for kills and 24 for hitting —with 584 attacks and 77 errors.

In greater reserve roles as a junior (87 sets played) and sophomore (81 sets played), she had 81 kills and 28 total blocks two years ago —proceeding her sophomore season of 38 kills and 32 total blocks.

“Nat’s been another great player for us. To see her develop, from even when she was in junior high until now, she’s grown tremendously. As a player, as a person. Just finding her place on the team,” said Claxon. “She stepped into a huge role for us this past year. In years past, she had Bri (Claxon) and Faith (Maloney) and Rylee (McGraw) and other players in front of her that were dominant, and she was a role player. But she worked really hard at her craft to be better and to be successful. You really saw that this year. We knew that we needed her to step up and produce big time for us. If you look at her numbers for her freshman, sophomore and junior year, we didn’t need that ‘wow’ factor from her. She did her job and she did it very well. This year, her connection with (setter) Bella (Claxon) was pretty remarkable. Just how fast our offense was. People couldn’t stop her in the middle because of how quick it was and how those two worked well. You have to attribute that to Nat’s hard work. To how much she put in. Just really proud to see her growth all these years.”

Adkins added a possible position at NC Wesleyan will be right-side hitter, as the Bishops are coached by Ohio native and ninth-year head coach Vicky Gentile.

Of course, those two teams of 2020 and 2021 saw South Webster first return to the Division IV regional championship match —before breaking through and winning the Region 15 championship her junior campaign.

“It was great to play at South Webster, especially on the state team (2021). There’s just nothing like that. Our chemistry and our friendships that came from that team, nothing compares to it. I mean it’s obviously great we made it to state and it was amazing we won four straight district titles, but nothing compares to those friendships that grew,” said Adkins. “I still talk to the seniors from last year. I am glad volleyball has given me those friendships.”

Adkins became the latest Jeep off those teams to play college volleyball — joining first Faith Maloney and Graci Claxon, who both committed to Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and then Rylee McGraw, who committed to Ohio Christian University.

Bri Claxon signed to play college basketball at Division II Gannon University, and was the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year.

In Adkins’ senior season, the Jeeps jumped up to Division III —and still won the district championship, before falling to Region 11 champion Meadowbrook.

South Webster won SOC II title shares with Wheelersburg in 2020 and 2022, sandwiched around Adkins’ junior season of an outright league crown.

“Last year was a lot different. We had always had the class above me to lead everyone and keep everyone together as a team. This year, we (2022 seniors) attempted to fill those roles,” said Adkins. “We tried our best and I feel we made a great season out of it.”

Now, she seeks out another opportunistic season —and career on a Rocky Mount high.

”We have a big freshman class, so my goals are to earn a spot and get some playing time. Hopefully, we win the conference again. I am really looking for a family-like atmosphere and enjoying playing with my team. I am ecstatic to be able to go and still play volleyball. I am so excited for the opportunity to leave home and be in such a great place,” she said. “It’s amazing down there, I love it and I can’t wait. Hopefully, I continue to be successful in my academic and athletic careers.”

Adkins said she plans on majoring in Computer Science.

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @paulboggssports © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved