By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

COLUMBIANA – Three sport stars are a rarity in today’s world with a lot of parents and high school athletes shifting the focus of the student athlete to just one sport, but that’s not the case for Madison Purcell, who has become a three-sport athlete at Shelby County High School.

On Monday, Nov. 2, at First Baptist Church in Columbiana, Purcell’s hard work in each sport paid off when she signed an athletic scholarship to attend Southern Union Community College where she will continue to play softball.

Purcell is a current senior for the Wildcats and is a member of the basketball, softball and volleyball teams, where she has helped each team have some strong recent success over the last three years.

Each of the three teams has made deep postseason runs in all of those sports with the volleyball team having the most recent success thanks to a trip to the Super Regional round of the postseason a month ago.

She also helped last year’s girls basketball team make it to the Elite 8 of the state tournament, while the softball team won the area championship in the spring of 2018 and also made a deep postseason run.

Now, the senior hopes to have one last special ride in both of those sports as she closes out her high school career. Each has a strong chance to compete for a state title with most of its members back on teams that will be no stranger to success.

Outside of school ball, Purcell has played travel softball for the Bandits of Calera, as well as a team out of Helena coached by Derrick Bryant, both of which have had impacts on her athletic career.

Aside from the athletic side of life, Purcell has also done well academically and has gotten a head start on things by taking health science at the School of Technology in Columbiana as she is already preparing for college.

Once she gets to Southern Union, Purcell plans to study nursing and get her degree in that field.