Make it a double…Milligan Lady Buffs sign Cloudland’s Vines for basketball

Published 7:35 am Tuesday, May 21, 2019

ROAN MOUNTAIN— Cloudland High School has been solid in girls’ basketball for several years and the Lady Highlanders have been seeing the fruits of those labors come to pass in the last month as on Friday Coach Rich Aubrey’s staff was at the school for the second time as another Lady’ Lander has signed to play collegiately at Milligan.

Trinity Vines inked her National Letter of Intent in the school’s library to join forces with Stacia Wilson on Aubrey’s team as the two long-time teammates will share the court for another four years.

“I just really liked how the team is more like a family and it just felt right,” Vines said about her decision. “I just hope that I can help the team any way that I can.”

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Vines plans on studying Exercise Science in the hope of one day becoming an occupational therapist. She is going into her career as a Lady Buff with the realization that the game and schooling are not going to be like she has been accustomed to at Cloudland.

“School and sports are going to be a big difference from high school to college because it’s going to be a lot faster in basketball and a lot harder in the classroom,” stated Vines. “I think that as long as you work hard, you can do anything that you want to.”

Milligan likes what they see in a player like Vines and are excited to have her come on board.

“We are definitely excited about her length and ability to kind of play all positions,” said assistant head coach Kylie Russell. “We are looking to have a system next year where we run a lot of motion and spread the floor and we know that she is capable of working in the paint and making moves and taking advantages of mismatches and she can also play out on the perimeter.

“Cloudland is always good basketball—this is a great place for girls’ basketball consistently,” Russell continued. “Obviously, we know with the older Wilson sisters we kind of know what we are getting and Trinity is part of this system. It’s good to get local kids and we know they know how to play.

Vines felt like playing for Coach Mike Lunsford was beneficial in preparing her for the college level as Lunsford emphasis the importance of playing hard and keep going no matter what.

Her former head coach felt like Vines’ versatility is what is going to carry her far in her basketball career.

“Trinity is very versatile,” Lunsford stated. “She can play a lot of positions and she can really handle the ball. She worked hard and improved on her ballhandling skills.

“Her better assets are shooting because she’s tall and can pass the ball because she can see over the top of people. She handled the ball a lot with us and it made us a better basketball team winning 25 games basically with that.

“She was one of the top assist players on our team,” Lunsford continued. “Not many times do you get two kids out of a school like that. I think they worked well together and have played together since they were small and they know each other’s game and know what to expect of each other.”

Russell felt like the fact that two teammates are coming to the program at the same time will help the transition become easier.

“I think they are planning on rooming together so that’s going to help with the transition,” Russell added. “Stacia kind of already has a step because she knows who some of the players are so that will kind of help Trinity get another foot in the doors so I think that the transition is going to be, it’s always hard coming into college, but I think it’s going to be smooth for both of them.”