India Yarborough doesn’t use words like “empower” and “leader” lightly.
From being a co-captain on the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science girls soccer team to being an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to working as a volunteer to sponsoring a mentoring program for eighth-grade girls at Columbus Middle School, Yarborough understands the importance of setting an example for others. It’s something she has done for 10 years on the soccer field and throughout her time as a student at Columbus High School and now at MSMS, a public residential high school for academically gifted students in Columbus on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women.
Last week, Yarborough’s accomplishments and work were recognized when she was one of 16 seniors from the state of Mississippi who were selected to receive the 2015 Lindy Callahan Scholar Athlete scholarship. Yarborough and Eupora High’s Trey Pittman were the outstanding female and male scholar-athletes from District IV.
“I was really excited,” Yarborough said. “I feel it is an honor. Only two in the history of MSMS have gotten it, so I thought it was really cool.”
A boy and a girl were selected from each of the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s eight geographical districts. The recipients were chosen for their academic accomplishments and their participation in high school athletics and extracurricular activities. Each winner will receive a $1,500 college scholarship through the support of MHSAA partners like BankPlus, C Spire, Mississippi Power, and Mississippi Sports Medicine.
The scholar-athletes will be honored April 2 in Jackson at the 20th-annual banquet.
Yarborough started her prep career at Columbus High before transferring to MSMS for her junior year. She grew up playing soccer in the Columbus recreation leagues and was one of the first players to play for Columbus United, the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority’s club team.
Yarborough has been a two-time All-District player in Class 1A-2A-3A, District 4. She also was a two-time MVP of the Columbus High girls soccer team as a freshman and sophomore.
Off the field, Yarborough said her involvement with W.I.L.L. (Women Influencing Lives through Literature) is one of her proudest accomplishments. She said the mentoring program gives her a chance to read current novels with a group of about 15 eighth-graders. She said she and soccer teammate Kimya Jamasci and W.I.L.L. members discuss issues and themes in books that she hopes influence the lives of the eighth-graders and motivate them to get involved and to help others. The program was started a couple of years ago by a MSMS graduate. Each year, she said two senior girls are selected to continue the program.
Yarborough said she and Jamasci have tried to expand the program by getting women from the community to talk to the eighth-graders. She said the opportunity to impact the lives of others is something that always has interested her.
“Ultimately I just want to empower people, and I want people to feel like they can really go after what they want and can achieve their dreams,” Yarborough said. “I want these girls to really think they can do this.”
Yarborough said she has tried to pay attention to the coaches and teachers who have helped her throughout the years. She said her goal is to continue to reciprocate the generosity of others who have helped her and to volunteer or to help others learn the skills or to find something that excites them and motivates them to get involved.
Yarborough said the best example of people helping her likely would be the years she has played soccer. At MSMS, her father, Chuck, is her coach on the girls soccer team. She said there have been so many coaches who have pushed her to be persistent and to keep working hard to develop her skills.
Chuck Yarborough said he saw those intangibles take hold in his daughter at an early age because she wasn’t the biggest or the fastest player. Still, he said she never would allow what she couldn’t do — or do as well or as quickly as others — to prevent her from trying. He said Yarborough’s persistence has helped her become an academic leader and a gifted scholar. He also said India’s leadership has been a key to the team’s success. MSMS was 2-10-1 in 2013 and improved to 9-3 in India’s junior year. The Lady Waves earned the school’s first playoff berth in three years that season. This season, the team overcame injuries and illnesses to finish 8-5 (4-4 district) for the first back-to-back winning seasons in years.
“She is a driving force behind the squad, and her team has met with successes that are directly attributable to her leadership,” Yarborough said.
When India isn’t playing soccer, she likely is involved with something. She received the “Spirit of MSMS” award during her junior year and was selected to be a MSMS emissary — a student ambassador position — this year.
It might sound daunting to be involved with so many things, but Yarborough doesn’t look at it that way. Instead, she takes the approach that if she doesn’t push herself, no one else is going to do it. She feels she wouldn’t be where she is today if she hadn’t pushed herself on and off the field to be the best she can be.
Her hope is to translate that hard work to college. She said she is immersed in the college selection process and is seriously considering attending Loyola University, a Jesuit school in New Orleans. She hopes she will be able to start a W.I.L.L. program at that school, or wherever she decides to go. That shouldn’t be surprising because Yarborough always has worked hard to set the example for others to follow and to encourage others to do the same.
Chuck Yarborough said he has seen India step into a bigger leadership role in her time at MSMS.
“She has an awareness that she not only has the ability but the responsibility to lead others because they are looking for that,” Chuck Yarborough said. “That is a level of maturity that as a coach is magical to see when it happens.”
Chuck Yarborough said India has embraced the two great lessons of sports that he has preached to his players: If you work hard, you can improve yourself at something, and if you work together, you can improve your team.
“India not only learned those, but she truly has taken them into herself and then become a light that shines those lessons on others, which is pretty remarkable,” Chuck Yarborough said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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