BAY MINETTE, Ala. -- Michael Stanley, Baldwin County High School's second all-time leading scorer, inked a basketball scholarship Wednesday with Georgia's NAIA power Emmanuel College.
Stanley, second only to Zach Anderson in the BCHS scoring totals, was a first team 6A all-state player this past season as he led the Tigers to another 20-plus win season.
The tall Tiger point guard averaged 23.1 points per game this season for coach Lorenzo Hunter at BCHS. Stanley also had 6.3 assists per game and five rebounds per contest.
Emmanuel is located in Franklin Springs in northeastern Georgia. They play in the National Christian College Athletic Association and won the national NCCAA Division I title in 2009.
"I visited up there and it seemed like home to me," Stanley, who is known as "Red" to teammates and most at Baldwin County High School, said at the signing ceremony.
"Coach T.J. Rosene and his assistants are good guys. I played with the team up there and really got along good with them. It's a good place," Stanley, a three-time all-county performer, added.
Stanley helped lead the Tigers to 20-plus wins in each of his four seasons with the BCHS varsity. He was named to the all-region, all-county and all-state teams and was the Press-Register's Player of the Year. He also earned the Mobile Optimist's Player of the Year honor.
Hunter had nothing but heaps of praise for his senior standout.
"I first got to know Michael as an eighth-grader and this is a climax of years of hard work. Michael has worked very hard on both his academics and athletics and he will be successful at Emmanuel and at life," Hunter said. "Not only is he a great athlete but he has a great outlook on life. Always has a smile on his face, always upbeat. There is never a dull moment when Michael Stanley is around. We will truly miss him. I am so very proud of him today."
Stanley is a Stockton resident and the son of Orlene Stanley.
"I am very happy to be headed to Emmanuel," Stanley said. "But I will miss coach Hunter and all my teammates and classmates at BCHS as well as all the great teachers and administration here. I would like to thank people like Mireo English, a great friend and mentor and like a father, and my AAU coach Mark Baggerly. All the teachers here have been so supportive and there are many of them that are almost like second mothers to me."
He mentioned Janice Simon, Dr. Rachel McDaniel and Mrs. Bridges, among many others.
BCHS Athletic Director David Wofford praised Stanley during Wednesday's signing ceremony.
"Michael is a tender spirit," Wofford said. "Emmanuel is getting a heck of an athlete and a heck of a person."