By Steven Bradley (Contact / Staff Bio)
March 29, 2008 - 12:15 a.m. EST

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Steven Bradley

Walhalla High School multi-sport standout Danielle Stone signs a letter-of-intent to join the track and field team at USC Upstate, Friday in Walhalla. She is joined by (seated from left) her parents, Kenneth and Vonda, assistant track coach Mike Pope, (standing from left) track coach David Smith, softball coach John Chmelar, basketball coach Cheryl Murphy and April Gambrell.

WALHALLA — Walhalla High School senior Danielle Stone has logged more than her share of time and put in more than her share of hard work on the various athletic fields surrounding the school.

Stone has played varsity softball for six years – first at West-Oak, and the past three years at Walhalla – and has played both varsity volleyball and basketball for five years, since she was in the eighth grade.

But when it came time to move onto the collegiate level, Stone found her best opportunity was in a sport with which she had barely any experience – track and field.

On Friday, Stone inked a letter-of-intent to join the track and field team at USC Upstate, participating in the discus and shot put.

But what she lacks in experience, she clearly makes up for in potential – and it didn’t take Razorbacks track coach David Smith long to realize it.

“I was walking down the hallway one day, and Mr. Smith said, ‘I want you to come out and throw one time, and see what you throw,’ and I threw – and he was like, ‘Oh wow, you’re going to be on the track team,’” Stone said. “And I said, ‘I don’t know if I have time,’ because I play softball too. So I went out and practiced one time and then went to a meet, and I threw 34 feet, which is really good for a girl – and I won the meet my very first time, and then I haven’t thrown since then.”

While her distance in her very first meet was good enough to win, it’s scary to think what she might accomplish with some training and coaching.

“When I went out for my region meet, I threw 34 feet – and I don’t even have a technique,” she said. “I had no clue. I just took it and threw it.”

Her practice time is severely limited right now, though, as she has plenty of work as a pitcher and slugger for the Razorbacks’ softball team.

“I can only practice with them when I don’t have softball, and I can only go to meets when I don’t have softball,” Stone said.

As for how she got involved with USC Upstate, Stone said she had a friend on the Spartans’ team that suggested it to her.

“One of my good friends goes there and is on the track team, Ashley Moore, and she said, ‘The coach would really like to throw her,’” Stone said. “And I said, ‘I really want to stay close to home, and I want a four-year school with a good education,’ so that’s where I ended up choosing.”

Once she actually went to the campus, she said the decision was an easy one.

“I went for an official visit like three weeks ago,” she said. “I loved it – I can’t wait to move in the dorm on August 4th. It’s really pretty, and it really spread out…and I like the dorms, that’s what got me, because they’re so nice and I get my own individual room.”

Stone said she plans to major in Early Elementary Education, and she hopes to one day be either a first- or second-grade teacher.

So, while Stone has her college plans all worked out, she says she’s still surprised at how it all worked out.

“I had no clue,” she said. “If you’d ask me last year, I was for sure I was going to sign on softball. I also got some volleyball offers from small colleges, and Lander wanted me for basketball – but it just ended up going too smoothly with track. And I never thought, in a million years, that I would be going for track…but it’s going to be for the best, I think.”