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Pine’s Kolton Graves has signed a letter of intent to attend William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss. and play soccer for the Crusaders.

“It’s a good school to go to,” Graves said. “After playing seven years of high school, I got offered a scholarship, so it felt great to go to college.”

Graves was a first-team all-district player last season and second-team all-district the year before.

Graves said his biggest attribute on the field is being a team player, being able to get the ball to a teammate, crossing and being able to run fast enough.

Graves’ main position on the pitch is striker, but said he’ll play wherever his team needs him.

Pine coach Shane Creel, who was in his first season as the Raiders head soccer coach, said he is very proud of Graves.

“He’s done a really great job this year. He’s worked hard all year,” Creel said. “Even in practice he goes full speed at every practice and he sets a really good example for the rest of the team. That’s probably my biggest thing with him is that he’s really set a good example for everybody else to follow.

“Even when the rest of the team might not want to go full speed at practice, I could always point at Kolton and say, ‘you’ve gotta keep up with him,’ so he really helped me out from the coaching perspective.”

Graves plans on majoring in nursing.