If Madison McPherson’s life was a book, the soon-to-be 18-year-old would already have several chapters filled. McPherson is a senior at Marion County Middle/High School in Buena Vista, Georgia, where she is a three-sport athlete. Up to this point, McPherson has packed a lot of re-locations, sports, interests and activities into a relatively young life.
As with most books, it is probably best to start at the beginning. McPherson is the only child of Tim and Fran McPherson who are both coaches. Looking at their 5’8” athletic and energetic daughter, it is almost hard to believe Madison was born two months prematurely and weighed less than four pounds at birth.
“I was sitting on a bench at Valdosta State because my husband was coaching a team at a tournament and I looked at him and said I don’t feel right,” recalls Fran McPherson.
Madison was born shortly thereafter and spent 16 days in a hospital neonatal unit.
Even under those circumstances, it was apparent this little girl was special. Her mother says the doctors were amazed Madison had an Apgar score (criteria used to assess the health of a newborn) of 9 after arriving so far ahead of schedule.
The McPherson’s daughter thrived and because she was born into a household of sports enthusiasts, she also learned to love athletics beginning with basketball. If she ever succeeds to the point where her likeness graces a cereal box, they have the perfect picture for it.
“I guess I have known basketball practically my whole life. I actually have a photo of me hanging on the rim of a basketball goal when I was wearing diapers,” laughs McPherson.
Her early life chapters are filled memories of accompanying her parents to various sporting events and watching high school games while playing around gym bleachers or in the vicinity of a dugout.
McPherson may have taken up the sport of basketball early but she was sort of a late bloomer when it came to softball. Despite her parents’ desire for her to play the sport, McPherson resisted the idea until she was 12. That year she joined friends who were already playing softball through a recreational league. Almost immediately the young athlete discovered she not only liked the game but that she also was pretty good on the mound.
“I could tell right away. I just sort of realized I had a natural talent for softball and then began to develop the idea that I could become a good athlete if I worked on it,” says McPherson.
Her natural talent was obvious to her parents as well. McPherson’s mom gives her husband credit for their daughter’s powerful pitching arm, saying “she definitely has her dad’s cannon.” It appears McPherson inherited a competitive spirit and sense of discipline from her mother. One thing, however, is uniquely all McPherson’s.
She is a left-handed pitcher.
It is perhaps this different but not necessarily rare feature that helped set McPherson apart as she progressed through to high school athletics. Along the way, other chapters of her life were made as her parents moved to take on different coaching jobs. One year her mother transitioned to the college level of coaching. Her stint at Georgia Southern was short-lived, however, due to traveling for the job took too much time away from her young daughter.
McPherson attended middle school and her first two years of high school at Southland Academy, a private school in Leesburg, Georgia, because of her mother’s job. When an offer was made for Fran McPherson to come to Marion County High School as head of the girls basketball program, it was a decision that affected both mother and daughter. To leave the place where the talented athlete had already established herself as a varsity athlete in softball, basketball and track since the 8th grade was tough.
“I told her I wouldn’t go without her and Madison could have stayed with her friends and a really good athletic program. We’ve never looked back. It has been good for us both and Madison has really excelled here,” says Fran McPherson about the move to MCHS.
Excelled doesn’t quite do this chapter in McPherson’s life justice in describing what she has accomplished since arriving at the Buena Vista school. In softball, she holds every record at Marion County for homeruns in a season, career, RBI’s, strikeouts, ERA, On Base Percentage, slugging percentage, most no hitters and wins. Those achievements earned her being named the Region Player of the Year for softball in 2015.
In basketball during her junior season, she averaged 16 points per game, 10 rebounds, 2.9 blocks, four steals, and had over thirty three-pointers for the Lady Eagles. She was named to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer’s All Bi-City First Team in Basketball and was an All-State Selection in both softball and basketball.
She also participates in several track and field events including shot put and discus. Last year McPherson placed fifth in the state in shot put.
McPherson’s total list of accomplishments in sports is enough to fill a lengthy chapter of a book. She also has achieved success in the classroom where she has a 3.86 Grade Point Average (GPA) that includes all AP and Honors classes. She has made the school’s Honor Roll with Distinction and is part of the Move On When Ready Program which is enables her to be enrolled at Georgia Southwestern State University.
Her combined stellar athleticism and academic prowess has garnered quite a lot of attention from college coaches. Many schools courted her for softball in part due to her career record to date of 978 strikeouts and 136 RBI’s. After weighing the possibilities, she will be headed to Athens to attend The University of Georgia.
The decision took a while but McPherson has a definite plan.
Her life involves many different interests. She lives on a farm complete with a menagerie of animals including a brand new rabbit she is pretty excited about. McPherson actually shows horses in the Hunter and Jumper categories and once thought about becoming a veterinarian. Her plan these days has her leaning more toward a medical field for humans and she hopes to pursue a degree at Georgia taking her closer to that goal.
The multi-talented athlete will not just leave behind outstanding sports records when she heads off to UGA next fall. She also will leave behind her coach for all three sports she has played at Marion County. Fran McPherson has been assistant softball coach, head basketball coach and girls track coach as well physical education teacher for her daughter the past two years.
It will be a bittersweet ending to another chapter of McPherson’s life but like most good books, there is the anticipation of what lies ahead.
ITG Web Content
New Chapter Being Written In Three-Sport Athlete’s Life
Written by Beth Welch
Photo by George McDuffie
