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MTCS’s Anna Clay Shirley is DNJ’s All-Sports Female Athlete of the Year

VaselineJuly 2, 2024

0 2 minutes read

MTCS’s Anna Clay Shirley is DNJ’s All-Sports Female Athlete of the Year

Middle Tennessee Christian School’s Anna Clay Shirley hopes her athletic career will continue to improve.

The junior has already made a big name for herself in the Murfreesboro area, emerging as one of the top volleyball and basketball players since her eighth grade year.

As a sophomore, Shirley found success both individually and on a team level, being named first-team all-area in volleyball and basketball. She has been named the Daily News Journal 2023-24 All-Sports Female Athlete of the Year.

“I think it was a pretty good year,” Shirley said. “I’m hoping for more next year. I felt like we came up short (for state titles), and that’s going to make us hungry for more and ready to come back stronger.”

Shirley helped the Cougars volleyball team to a third-place finish in the TSSAA DII-A state volleyball tournament as a winger. The first-team all-area player was the district co-MVP, with 515 kills, 444 digs and 41 aces to lead MTCS to 42 wins.

“My standard description for Anna Clay is that she’s the ultimate competitor,” said former MTCS volleyball coach Troy Berry. “When she plays the game, she’s trying to win. It’s funny to see that in such a young athlete, but that’s her mindset.

“There’s no hard feelings or anything, but she’s going to be involved, whether it’s a training session, a team building exercise or whatever. That allows her to take a lot of emotion out of the big moments, she’s just so focused on the task at hand. It allows her to rise to the big moments.”

The 6-foot guard was also a first-team all-area basketball performer, averaging 18.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 36 percent from 3-point range. MTCS advanced to the Middle Region tournament after reaching the DII-A state championship game each of the previous two seasons.

Shirley was selected to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association all-state team in both sports.

As a sophomore it wasn’t easy to play at a high level, but when I saw her play it seemed to come effortlessly.

“Yeah, it can be (hard), for sure,” Shirley said. “That and balancing schoolwork and everything. I just focused on what I needed to focus on and not get overwhelmed. I don’t do travel volleyball anymore, so I really had to be intentional in the weight room and stuff to get stronger and jump higher. That really helped me with volleyball.”

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Shirley has been busy this off-season playing AAU basketball and attending team camps with the Cougars. She rarely takes a day off from the gym. She hopes that dedication will lead to greater success, both individually and for her teams.

“I would definitely say winning a state championship is a goal of mine (for 2024-25) in both sports,” Shirley said. “I just want to get better and improve in everything I do.”

Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.

VaselineJuly 2, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Vaseline

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