PROSPERITY — Mid-Carolina High School’s Julie Kinard has signed to play basketball at Newberry College.
Kinard has been on the varsity basketball team, where she plays point guard, since eighth grade, but has been playing the sport since she was three years old.
“I’m actually going to Newberry to play softball, too. They just didn’t offer me a scholarship. They’re just going to let me play. I’ve always grown up playing that and I played volleyball, too. But basketball has always been my favorite,” Kinard said.
After tearing her ACL twice, Kinard said she is grateful to be able to play basketball on the college level. Because of her injuries, particularly the second ACL tear, Kinard didn’t have many other options when it came to choosing a school.
“I really liked Newberry College because I sat in Coach Page’s office and he understood that I had difficulties and said that if I wanted to go to Newberry then I could and that they would still take me. I really appreciated that,” Kinard said.
During the off season, Kinard focuses on hitting the weights and doing a ton of shooting to get ready for the upcoming basketball season.
Outside of athletics, Kinard is involved with Beta Club and was a member of chorus, but since she is graduating early, she hasn’t had much time outside of basketball. Kinard will start Newberry College in January so she can rehab with the team to get her ready for next season.
“Coach Page wanted me to come early and he thought it was so far off the table. He mentioned that he knew it wasn’t going to happen, but he really wanted me to come in January, ” Kinard said. “I sat down with them and talked about it for a while and thought long and hard about it. We decided that was probably best. They let me decide that because they didn’t want to influence me.”
Because she is graduating early, Kinard hasn’t taken many classes this year, but says that when it comes to academics she stays on top of her school work, bringing in an almost 4.0 GPA.
“We were very pleased when Newberry offered her a scholarship, because like I said, Julie has torn her ACL twice in the past year and a half and a lot of schools didn’t show interest, but Coach Page did, and we’re very grateful that he is giving her this opportunity,” said Lisa and Jeff Kinard.
Jeff said the two injuries affected their family more than it did Julie.
“We missed watching her play that much. We’ve always kind of followed wherever she went and enjoyed seeing her play and it probably hurt us worse than it did her,” Jeff said.
“It will be nice having her close to home, but I promised I wouldn’t bug her. I work in Newberry, so I can leave from work and just go straight to a game to see her play,” Lisa said.