Roseberry Ready To Make Decision

Cougar Swimmer Highly Recruited
By David Gravely

She is the most highly recruited athlete at Pulaski County High School. In fact, she is one of the most highly recruited athletes in Southwest Virginia. They call her "Fish", but they call her that out of respect and usually after she has left them in a trail of her bubbles.

Her name is Natalee Roseberry, she is a swimmer, and for the past few years she has been on a mission. Her goal.....earn a full ride scholarship to a Division one college to compete against the very best. Based on the past few months, she will reach that goal when she signs her National Letter of Intent on National Signing Day in February.

Her workout schedule is pretty demanding. Five days a week she swims from 5:30 am to 7:30 am. Of those five days, two evenings are spent back in the water from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm, and the other three are spent there from 4 to 6 pm. She also swims on Saturdays from 7:30 to 9:30. She swims at the War Memorial Pool on the Campus of Virginia Tech and at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center mainly, but if there is enough water she will most likely try to race you in it. If she races you in the water, odds are you will lose.

"It's been a lot of work, but I've enjoyed it" said Roseberry, a senior at PCHS. "I've had some coaches that have helped me reach my highest potential, and I've tried to balance doing what I'm supposed to in the pool with keeping things right in the classroom. There hasn't always been alot of extra time, but I wouldn't change a thing. Now that the time to make my decision is getting near, it's getting really exciting. I'm looking forward to the future."

Natalee swims in three different groups, which take her up and down the east coast and around the country. First, of course, she swims for Pulaski County High School. With this team, she swims against the local schools and the schools of the River Ridge District. She is also a member of the H2Okies Swim Club, which also allows her to swim in competitions held by U.S. Swimming, the highest group for swimmers in the country. In March, Natalee will travel to Orlando, Florida to swim in the NCSA Junior National Championships. In February, she will be competing in the Virginia Swimming Senior Championships in Christiansburg.

Roseberry, who holds a 3.5 grade point average while being enrolled in all either dual credit (college and high school) or advanced placement classes, has also found time to be active in advance choir and advanced theater during her time at PCHS. In her spare time, she also enjoys being a self proclaimed "beach bum", being active in bringing awareness to social issues, and loves to ride BMX motorcycles. You can also add that during her junior year she was selected as Miss PCHS, as well as being selected as this years Prom Queen.

It's easy to see how a college could see her as a well rounded student, and obviously that's just what has happened. To date, Natalee has taken two official visits to college campuses, and both were nearby. First she took a trip the James Madison University, and this past weekend she spent some time with the Virginia Tech Swim team and their coaches. Over the past several months, she has received invitations to visit almost every college in Virginia, as well as notable out of state schools such as the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, West Virginia, and the University of Alabama.

While she doesn't want to make it completely official just yet, she seems to have her mind set in a certain direction. "My dad was a Hokie and my mom was a Hokie. If everything works out, then that would certainly be a great situation for me. I'm crossing my fingers that the folks at Tech can get everything lined up for us, and if they can then on Signing Day my choice would be pretty easy. There are alot of good schools out there, but this would really work out the best from what I've seen so far."

Natalee is the daughter of Alan Roseberry of Claytor Lake and Becky Roseberry of Dublin.

Lady Cougar Soccer Building Their Own Future

Lady Cougar Soccer Building Their Own Future
By David Gravely

Over 70 young soccer players gathered at Pulaski County High School recently to work on their game as the Lady Cougar Soccer team hosted the first annual Lady Cougar Soccer Indoor Camp.

"We have kids with talent in the area, but we need to get to them young and start teaching the basics and fundamental skills that they will need when they reach the high school" said Lady Cougar Soccer Head Coach Eric Martin. "Most kids come up through the system thinking that the most important thing is scoring goals. That's the wrong mentality, and we're working to change it. The young kids need to know the importance of passing and working as a team to move the ball. We want them to be confident that they can take on anyone, one on one, and keep the ball away from them. If they can do that and then add effective passing and ball movement, then the goals will come."

The players who attended the camp ranged from the youngest recreation league players to current eighth graders who will be trying out for the junior varsity team this coming spring. During the first day of the camp, the focus was on ball handling and effective passing techniques. The campers were split into groups by age, and current Lady Cougar varsity soccer players worked as their coaches with Coach Martin and assistant coach Tim McPeak over watching the progress.

"We want to try to get the players from all age groups together as often as possible to work with them" said Coach Martin. "We're trying to build our program up, and it has got to start from the younger levels. We want the kids involved, and we need them to be out playing as much as possible. We want our program to be able to compete with anybody, and to do that we've got alot of work to do. The good news is that the kids really seem to be willing to do that work."

The final session of the camp will be held this Sunday at Pulaski County High School, with a start time of 2 pm. Anyone interested in finding out more about the camp can contact Coach Martin at javascript:window.top.openSendEmail('etmartin@pcva.us.','','','');