SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Two senior volleyball players from Spanish Fort High School recently signed athletic scholarships to attend Pensacola Junior College.

“This is a first for Spanish Fort High School,” Coach Barclay Kercher said. “I am very excited as this is our first senior class and they are setting a tradition for the volleyball program.”

Haley Forrester and Leah Davis signed the two scholarships on Thursday in the Spanish Fort High school media center with PJC Coach Pete Pena attending. Pena is the intercollegiate athletic coach of women’s volleyball at PJC.

Pena said Thursday was a big day for PJC as they will not only be getting two outstanding volleyball players, but also two outstanding ladies.

“You always played with a great deal of heart,” he said to the two athletes.

“We travel, wear that name across our chest, and it is important who represents our name and these are the kind of kids we want.”

Forrester will play libero, a defensive back row specialist position, and Davis was recruited as a setter for the PJC Pirates volleyball team, Kercher said.

“Things are beginning to pay off around here and it is thrilling for all of us,” Principal Michael Lucci said.

Davis has been the Toros’ volleyball team captain for three years and has been the setter as well as outside hitter, Kercher said.

“Her leadership skills were phenomenal,” Kercher said. “Davis is a team player and puts the team before herself.”

Davis said she was very interested in playing volleyball at the college level, but she was unsure of where she would play.

“My parents were very excited, just like I was,” she said.

Forrester has started on the Toros’ team for three years and is an outside hitter.

“She was a tremendous force at the net for us as well as a defensive player on the back row. She was our ‘go to player’ when we needed a point,” Kercher said.

“I just wanted to play,” Forester said, but she was unsure whether she would be offered the chance to do so.

She began playing volleyball in seventh grade but has been involved in different sports over the years, starting at age four.

“It [the ceremony] meant a heck of a lot, because it was brand-new to all of them,” Pena said about the athletes and SFHS. “We have gotten two special young ladies, and to me, I can’t speak enough about their character and that means everything to us.”

Pena first saw the girls play after being encouraged to watch them by one his team players when they were playing a Gulf Shores team.

“It was certainly a situation where it wasn’t a quick look — I took a long, hard look at both of them,” he said. “The more I looked at them, the more I liked them.”

Both Davis and Forrester play unique and equally important positions, Pena said. Talent on the volleyball stage was only part of his decision to sign them, he said.

Both girls were well coached, came from a good program and interacted well with teammates, he said. He said he watched them to see what their character revealed when the team was not leading and things weren’t going their way.

“They are absolutely the type of ladies we wanted,” he said.

Pena also said he had the pleasure of meeting the girls’ parents and has gotten to spend some time with all of them.

“You understand where these young ladies get it from,” he said.

Lucci also commended the parents of both athletes for being so supportive of their daughters’ athletic endeavors.

“We’re very excited. PJC is a great fit,” Margaret Davis, Leah’s mother, said. Melissa Forrester, Haley’s mother, said, “I’m very proud. She is a good student and athlete.”

Lucci said that both girls have been model students since the day the high school opened.

“They are outstanding students in the classroom, superior athletes and true leaders,” he said.

Kercher “coaches girls to win,” Lucci said. “She has brought the girls a long way in a very short time,” he said. “I am thrilled that they are starting what I hope will be a sustained tradition of Spanish Fort athletes getting scholarships.”

The ceremonial signing was attended by teammates, school officials, family and friends. The high school volleyball team consists of eight members, while six play out on the court, Kercher said. Kercher has high expectations that other team members will get scholarships in the future.

The SFHS volleyball team has competed at the state level for two of the three years the school has been open, she said.

“They (Davis and Forrester) have started a tradition and left big shoes to fill,” Kercher said.

The first official day of PJC practice is Aug.1, 2008 Pena said.