By Angie Ledbetter

Two South Panola Lady Tiger basketball team members are seeing their dreams come true by signing to play basketball at the next level.

Vetorra Cole and Skylar Barnes signed national letters of intent on Tuesday at South Panola High School with their head coach Ralph Stallings and their mothers on hand.

Cole signed to play at Itawamba Community College and Barnes signed to play at East Mississippi Community College.

Stallings said, “It’s a great feeling to have players continue to play. When I first got here, our basketball program was down and really no one was looking at any of our players. They were great young ladies but the athleticism and basketball skills weren’t where they were supposed to be.

“We’ve worked hard and we’ve got these two now,” he continued. “They both came up as ninth graders and put four years in to help this program get to the level that we’re on. We can actually make it to Jackson and be considered as one of the elite in the state. It’s a great feeling for me and for the program.”

Stallings prepares the players for the next level by the training he does and the level of competition that they play.

“I don’t think they’ll have to take a back seat to anybody when they get on campus as far as their skills and the knowledge of the game,” he said. “I don’t think there is anybody that will work any harder and do the drills. Both of them have gone for tryouts at their respective schools. The coaches that were there were highly impressed with their skills and abilities that they have.”

Barnes said signing means the world to her.

“It means that I can further my career and it lets me go and do more things in my life and start a new thing,” Barnes said. “It has always been a dream of mine. To be on a full paid scholarship, going to school, playing ball and doing what I love is my dream. It’s going to be a lot of hard work because it’s going to be discipline all the way.”

Barnes averaged over 10 points, four rebounds and two steals per game.

Cole said, “It means a lot to get a full paid scholarship to get to go to college and do what I’ve done for years. It’s a free education. They have one of the top medical schools and I want to go to school for prepharmacy.

“It has always been a dream of mine to go to college and play basketball,” Cole continued. “Coach Stallings has done a good job with us and he always told me that I would be able to play on the next level. I knew that I would but now that its here, I can hardly believe it. I think it’s going to be a lot harder and a lot more work.”

Cole averaged over 20 points a game, 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals. She made All-Division for two consecutive years.