Pine graduate Shay Seals has signed a letter of intent to attend Hollins University and play basketball for the school located in Roanoke, Va.

Seals said Hollins coach Jim Phillips began looking at her during her during her junior season at Pine. Seals said she at that point, she didn’t if she wanted to be that far away yet, it’s about a 13-hour drive. Seals said she really wanted to continue playing basketball, it was her dream, so wherever it took her, that’s where she was going to go.

“We went and visited and talked with him,” Seals said. “Coach is just a great guy and Virginia was gorgeous, the campus is beautiful and I just really couldn’t say ‘no’ to it,” Seals said.

Seals said she’s excited to see what this school has to offer and what opportunities she can have there.

This season, Seals was a second-team all-district player in 8-2A. She was an all-district honorable mention her junior season and a second-teamer her sophomore season. Seals was part of a District 8-2A championship after going through the league with an 8-0 record. Overall, the team finished 22-10 and made the regional round of the playoffs. Pine’s season ended with a 58-50 loss to Jonesboro-Hodge. Seals averaged 12 points, eight steals and seven rebounds per game.Seals said she would miss her team.

“We’ve grown to love each other and play like we’ve been playing together since we were little,” Seals said. “We had a two years together. I don’t think I’ll ever have another team like that.”

Pine coach Eddie Vaughn said Seals was a pleasure to coach.

“She worked hard to improve, which carried over to the games,” Vaughn said. “Her willingness to hustle from corner-to-corner, combined with the ability to anticipate ball movement made the 1-3-1 zone defense so effective. At any moment on offense, she had the mental approach to score the ball.”

“I am so proud of her for not only being good enough to play at the next level, but for having the courage to pursue her dream hundreds of miles from home,” Vaughn added.

Seals is heading to a school that went 7-19 overall and 2-14 in conference play. Hollins opens 2014 Nov. 15 in the NCWC Jean Edge Classic against N.C. Wesleyan. Besides Hollins, Seals said she was being looked at by Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania and Gordon College in Massachusetts. Seals, who graduated with a 3.5 GPA, said right now, she’s leaning towards majoring in nursing.

Shay is the daughter of Tab and Lynn Seals.