Although they played different sports and signed a national letter-of-intent at different colleges, three Stratford seniors shared a common theme of gratitude at their scholarship signing ceremony on Wednesday in front of the student body (grades 3-12) at the Stratford gym.

Jackson Pyles, Sachin Khurana and Mary Wilson Avant thanked their families, coaches, teammates and classmates for helping achieve their dreams.

Avant signed a softball scholarship with the University of Georgia. Khurana will play tennis at Mercer University. And Pyles is headed to Georgia College & State University on a baseball scholarship.

Avant finished as one of the most decorated players in Stratford softball history. She set school records for career (633) and single-season (234) strikeouts, as well as career home runs (17) and single-season homers (6). Her “Strikeouts for Hunger” campaign, where she received pledges for every

strikeout, raised more than $7,000 for community food banks at Macon Outreach and the Middle Georgia Rescue Mission.

Khurana was 17-0 and led the Eagles to a GHSA state tennis championship last year. He was named The (Macon) Telegraph’s all-Middle Georgia player of the year. He
and fellow senior Ann Thompson were recently named Stratford’s winners of the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award, which recognizes high school seniors for their academic achievements and community service. Coach Jaime Kaplan called Khurana a “dream player” and praised his attititude, leadership, kindness and sense of humor.

Pyles made his verbal commitment to Georgia College last week. As a pitcher, he has a 13-5 record with 1.54 ERA. He recorded six shutouts, two saves and threw a no-hitter.