"Gritty" Extra Effort Award Winner Pearce gets what she sets her mind on
Posted April 21, 2021 10:56 p.m. EDT
Updated April 21, 2021 11:37 p.m. EDT
Dissuading Arial Pearce? Not possible. There's a reason she's been committed to play college softball at UNCW since 8th grade.
"Once I have my mind set on something, it's gonna happen," laughed Arial Pearce, a senior at North Johnston High School and winner of the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award.
The senior could've coasted to the coast, but she's every bit of her father's daughter.
"I'm really aggressive and I have a grit, and it's all from him," Pearce said.
"She doesn't take shortcuts, she comes out and works everyday and wants to be one of the ones that everyone looks to," lists Chris Batten, NJHS Softball Coach.
That stretches beyond her self-described "Day One Sport," as Arial is also an all-conference basketball standout, a former team MVP, while averaging about 13 points per game.
With such natural athletic ability, she was recruited to other sports she never played, tennis, and dominated.
"She came out here the first couple of weeks and just went off," recalls David Anderson, NJHS Tennis Coach. "She went from 4th seed one year to 1st the next and going to the State Championships in doubles."
In this climate, that's about four hours a day dedicated to her craft.
"Multiple sports every day, multiple practices every day and balancing the academics, it's really amazing what she does," nods Jay Poole, NJHS Girls Basketball Coach.
We haven't even scratched that academic surface. Owner a 3.7 GPA and a CVS receipt level list of volunteer work that spans from coaching 8-and-under girls hoops to delivering food for the elderly.
"You want other kids to be like that," says Kristina Wheeler, NJHS Agriscience Teacher. "Even the kids beyond our school and in this community to say that, when I get to the high school I wanna be like that, I wanna be somebody who cares about grades, I wanna be somebody who plays sports, I wanna be somebody who is well-versed in all the extra-curricular activities like Arial is."
"I hate to use the word perfect, but she is," Anderson said.
We're proud to call Arial Pearce something else: a winner of the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award.
