It’s picture day at basketball practice for the Northern Nash High School Knights.

Number 34, that’s Emily Clay, a four-sport athlete at the school She loves each team, but softball, that’s hers.

“Softball was my first love,” Clay smiled

Brandon Clay is her coach and her dad.

“The softball player is competitive, super competitive,” Brandon Clay said. “At home, a little different. She’s artistic, she loves to paint, she does stuff that doesn’t revolve around sports at all at times.”

Academically, she has a 4.2 GPA, takes classes through Nash Community College, and is working toward becoming a certified nursing assistant in the spring.

“She’s going to give you 100 percent no mater what it is, whether it’s the classroom, whether it’s outside, whether it’s her friends, she’s going to give you 100 percent when she’s with you,” teacher Jennedy Clayton said.

“She is very ambitious, she does exactly what she wants to do, in a good way!” teacher Emily Engelking said.

So what’s her “why?” The same reason she got into softball.

“My Papaw is the reason I love softball,” Emily said.

Her grandfather. He died in 2018 due to cancer. He taught her everything she knew about the sports and was at every game.

“Softball is just a way I can still connect to him, make him proud,” she said.

She’s going to Valdosta State in the fall to play softball and she wants to be an oncologist. Her inspiration? You guessed it.

“That not only would give back to him, but give back to other people, because I know what it’s like, that was my person. The reason why I strive and do what I do is because of him.”

And that’s why Emily Clay is this week’s winner of the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award.