WEST POINT — Bill Atkins was shocked.

Atkins knew his son, Hunter, started “dabbling” in golf when he was 10 years old, but he had no idea how that sport had taken hold of him. It wasn’t until Hunter won a 12-and-under United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) baseball state championship playing the Mississippi Longhorns, a travel team of players from West Point, and then walked off the field that day and told him he was done with baseball that Bill Atkins realized how important golf was to his son.

Although surprised, Bill guessed his son was “burned out” after playing a lot of baseball growing up. He recalls his wife, Caroline, telling him, “This could be something good. You have to love what you do, and if you don’t love what you do, you’re not going to be good at it anyway.”

Hunter Atkins’ love for the game paid a big dividend Wednesday, as the Oak Hill Academy senior signed a scholarship to play golf at Southern Mississippi.

“He has worked hard at it,” Bill said. “Golf is one of those games you have to work at it every day, and literally every day he played golf from sun-up to sundown.”

Hunter credits the help of coaches V.J. Trolio and Tim Yelverton (chipping and putting coach) for helping him to realize his dream. Both men, along with a robust gathering of family members and friends, packed the Oak Hill Academy library to celebrate to occasion.

“I have worked hard every day and spent hours and hours on the golf course,” said Atkins, who has worked with Trolio and Yelverton since he was 8 or 9 years old. “There were streaks when I would go in the mid-80s. You can’t give up. You have to keep practicing. You know your game is good enough to go under par. You just have to keep practicing and get there.”

Atkins said winning a Mississippi Junior Golf Association tournament in Greenville when he was 15 helped convince him something good could happen with golf. He said his golf skills were “good” when he gave up baseball, but he said it wasn’t until a few years later after he started to grow as a player that he could realize his dream to play golf at the Division I level.

Trolio, who is an instructor at Old Waverly Golf Club, said Atkins “was always good at hitting. He said it took him a while to kind of commit to golf, but once he did, he has taken off. He pointed to Atkins’ victory in Greenville as a key moment in his ascension.

“It kind of proved to him he could win at the state level,” Trolio said. “That event had some regional kids in it. Since then, it has been a balance of him growing up, knowing how to work on it, working on it smart, and sort of preparing him to play college sports.”

Trolio said the progress Atkins has made has involved the commitment — physically and mentally — it takes to play a sport that sometimes can be more frustrating than rewarding. He said Atkins realized it would take 30-60 hours a week of commitment to be able to play at the Division I level. He said Atkins saw others around him at Old Waverly, like Carlos Sainz, Matt Fast, and Ally McDonald, who were working hard on their craft. He said Atkins grew to understand that amount of work is what he was supposed to do than working hard.

Today, Trolio said Atkins is “paying it forward” and being the example younger golfers see working at his game.

“I see a lot for him in college,” Trolio said. “The main things is getting down there and balancing school and golf. Any Division I athlete will tell you the sport is part of and you have to stay ahead of the rest of it. I think he gets down there and he does his stuff and takes care of his game. He is not going to have to rebuild anything as far as technique wise and learns to be a little better at his craft and gets a good education.”

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.