Monday, August 11, 2008
Redick picks Hokies
Abby Redick, a rising senior forward at Hidden Valley, has verbally committed to play college basketball at Virginia Tech.
The decision, Redick said on Sunday, came down to family. Redick wants to stick close to her family, and she was impressed with the commitment the Tech coaches made to her even after she tore the ACL in her right knee this summer.
"The first thing they said was we still want you to be a part of our family, we still want you to be a Hokie," Redick said.
Redick, who averaged 11.1 points and 6.9 rebounds a game and led the two-time Group AA champion Titans with 3.6 assists a game as a junior, had offers from Tech and Illinois.
She said she tore her ACL and dislocated her kneecap at a camp at Vanderbilt, but the ACL tear was initially misdiagnosed. She will undergo surgery to repair the ACL with a graft from her hamstring Thursday.
"Being injured I've obviously had a lot of thinking time," Redick said. "It made me realize how much my family means to me."
Redick said she spent the past week with her family at Isle of Palms, S.C., and by Saturday night had decided to commit to Virginia Tech -- close enough to home to see her parents when she wants, but far enough to feel independent.
"Playing in the ACC has always been a dream for me," Redick said.
Her two older sisters live in Raleigh, N.C., and can come to road games there, and she may even get to see her two older brothers, including Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick, on the road in Florida.
The Hokies also got a verbal commitment from Porschia Hadley, twice named to Georgia's AA all-state team by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hadley, a 6-foot-3 rising senior at Macon County High, averaged 22.6 points and 18.3 rebounds a game last season.
