Athlete Spotlight: Chelsea Maxwell and Nick Richards

Each year for nearly a decade, Greenbrier has awarded one senior athlete the Terry Holder Award, a scholarship funded by the school's athletic association.

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The format was changed this year, and a scholarship was awarded to one boy and one girl.

As Wolfpack seniors Chelsea Maxwell and Nick Richards ate breakfast with coaches and classmates in the school cafeteria on May 16, neither knew they had been chosen as this year's recipients until coach Rodney Holder, Terry's son, stood and presented each with a giant cardboard check for $1,000.

Terry Holder was the school's first athletic director and now coaches Thomson High School's baseball team. He was unable to make the presentation for the award bearing his name, so his son did the honors.

"I didn't even know they were giving it out," said Richards, who started at quarterback on the football team and outfield on the baseball team. "I'd just come originally for the breakfast."

Both Richards and Maxwell signed athletic scholarships this year. Richards will play quarterback at Valdosta State next season, and Maxwell is headed to the University of West Georgia on a cross country scholarship.

Maxwell said she would use the award to help pay for her apartment next year.

"I just got my running schedule in the mail," she said. "It makes it feel real now."

Richards considered not playing baseball this season. For the first two weeks of the season, he was working out and preparing for his football career at Valdosta State. But then he remembered how much fun he'd had last season when the Wolfpack won their second consecutive state baseball championship and he asked Rodney Holder if he could play.

"I didn't want to pass that up," Richards said.

The Wolfpack played the quarterfinals of the Class AAAA state baseball playoffs Tuesday. Richards has played left field, and launched a two-run home run against Jones County on May 14 to end Game 1 of the second round.

Richards said he's getting excited about joining Valdosta State, the defending Division II national champions in football, but doesn't want his high-school career to end quite yet.

"I'm playing baseball right now," Richards said. "I don't want it to come too quick."

Richards was the Wolf-pack's leader in rushing touchdowns. He also directed the Wolfpack's spread offense, one similar to the scheme the Blazers run.

Richards first took up the quarterback position as a junior, and former Wolfpack football coach Scott Chadwick said he will only improve next season.

"Just to go to a program that just won a national championship. I think that says volumes about the type of player he is," Chadwick said after Richards' signing in February.

Maxwell, armed with her summer running schedule, is ready to go. She finished 17th in the Class AAAA cross country meet this year and also competed on the Wolfpack's track team. She posted a personal best of 19:30 this season and said she hopes to break into the 18s when she joins West Georgia in the fall.

"I think having people to run with every day will help," she said.

Maxwell said West Georgia coaches likely will put her on the competitive squad. Her practice schedule will include running each day but Wednesday, and the Wolves' season is highlighted by a meet at Auburn.

"I always wanted to run in college," Maxwell said after her signing. "It's a dream come true."